


Those who Favor Fire

by Kizmet



Series: Tear Me Down [6]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Backstory, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:49:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 55,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5159258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission gone wrong leaves Angel, Rin and Bon trapped in Gehenna.  Simply entering Gehenna is regarded as death sentence for any Exorcist, but Rin’s never been one to give up in the face of the impossible.  Unfortunately, Angel had his own orders going in and a past that inclines him to follow them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Soar

**Author's Note:**

> Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I’m just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

The stadium at the True Cross Academy of Tokyo was packed. Never had an Exorcist Exam practical been so well attended. But then the Paladin had never administered one of the practicals before either. And, of course, the Exwire being tested was the son of Satan and inheritor of the blue flames which had wreaked such devastation on Exorcists world-wide eighteen years ago. 

The Grigori and their cabinet sat in the VIP box. “Exciting isn’t it?” Mephisto Pheles remarked as he took his seat. Drac Dragulesc frowned at the bowl of caramel corn Mephisto held balanced on one raised hand. Blithely ignoring the disapproval he was engendering the white and purple-clad demon offered a handful of carmel corn to the green hamster and blue turtle perched on his shoulder. The turtle turned up his nose scornfully at the offering while the hamster dug in. Mephisto popped a second handful into his own mouth.

The entire Angelic Brigade was present in the stands. The Brigade’s arias were stationed at regular intervals in the otherwise empty first row of seats while the rest of the members were more casually scattered through the stands. “Don’t try to hold the barrier by yourself,” Wang Zi counseled Bon. “There are fifty other arias here and the rest of us will be working in shifts, but I want you to stay in for the entire match.” Bon nodded, knowing as long as he was contributed to the barrier Rin’s flames wouldn’t touch it and it wouldn’t even take a conscious effort on Rin’s part. 

Konekomaru sat down in the seat beside Lightning. The Doctor-adept had his feet propped up on the back of the chair in front of him and looked half asleep, but the sideways glance he shot Konekomaru was sharp. “We got a hold of Okumura-kun’s written and oral exams,” he said. “Zi gave ‘em a look-over. According to him, Rin passed.”

Konekomaru took a moment to consider what he was being told. Among the Arc Knights Wang Zi was the most impeccable reference beside the Paladin himself. Lightning and Tezera Durov were both beholden to Angel for their positions, their backgrounds were too questionable without him vouching for their loyalty. Annie Oakley had been the Dragoon-adept for nearly twenty years, no one questioned her loyalty to Assiah or her skills, but she was a maverick at heart and the Grigori did question whether or not she’d follow orders any given day. Wang Zi was a stickler for hierarchy, he might question orders where Angel wouldn’t presume to have that right, but at the end of the day he’d follow them... Assuming that the person giving them hadn’t been exhausted into changing his mind by the end of the day. “Do you think there will be objections to allowing Rin to rank as an Exorcist?” Konekomaru asked Lightning.

“Hope not,” Lightning said. “But if there are I thought the Myodha might have use for those papers with Zi’s scoring on ‘em.”

“Bon won’t finish High School until next spring,” Konekomaru replied. “It wouldn’t really disturb the High Council if Rin didn’t pass this year. But it would suck if Rin had to take the test again for no reason.” 

“You might remind the Council of just how slowly bureaucracies can move. Three months might not be enough time to straighten out any irregularities if they wait until next year to make a stink,” Lightning suggested.

Konekomaru nodded. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s all this about then?” He gestured to the stands. “I thought Rin was among the True Cross’ top twenty knights based on last year’s practical, even if he didn’t pass the Exam.”

“If Okumura-kun weren’t an Exwire, a bout like this would be a declaration that he should be considered as the next Knight-adept after Arthur is killed.”

“Or retires the position?” Konekomaru added questioningly.

“Yeah, that’s a choice,” Lightning said wistfully. “Of course, Sir Pheles suggested this… In a sufficiently round-about way that Arthur has no clue where he got the idea from.”

“But why?” Konekomaru wondered. “Is there some timeframe where Sir Pheles needs to prove that he’s kept his promise to give the True Cross a weapon against Satan in Rin? There’s a fine line between proving Rin’s usefulness and scaring the Grigori senseless. I’ve seen Rin and Angel spar before, it gives Bon plenty of practice drawing on Rin’s powers just to keep the collateral damage down.” 

“For fifteen hundred years the True Cross has been trying to bring Exorcists of all denominations under their auspices,” Lightning said. “But now? I’d put money on a schism in the next decade. Your friend might be Sir Pheles’ tool for separating out the dross.”

Several rows up and to the left from Konekomaru and Lightning, Izumo and a snake-eyed girl quarreled over how to connect a camera to a laptop. “Be nice if the two of you could agree on something, anything before the fight starts,” Renzo said from Nishiki’s cellphone.

“Shut-up!” both girls snarled at the phone.

“There, they agree,” Sheimi giggled from the other end of the line.

“Nishiki, just let the fox-girl take care of it,” Mamushi scolded her younger sister as she took over the phone. “You’ve always been hopeless with electronics and we want to see the match here in Delphi.”

Nishiki scowled at the phone. Izumo smirked at her. “Yes, sit down and let me sort it out,” she said.

“You’ll never live it down if you don’t get it working now,” Uke said, sotto voce. Mike contented himself with shaking his head mournfully at Izumo’s lack of social graces. Godain and Mana glanced at each other then waved over one of the new class of first-year Exwires. Between the three of them they quickly got the camera up and running.

Angel and Rin walked out to the center of the stadium. At Angel’s gesture, Rin hung back slightly while the Paladin addressed the Grigori. “Last year, I told Okumura Rin to refrain from using his demon-powers so as not to obscure his abilities as a knight of the True Cross.” Angel grimaced, “I’ve been given to understand that that is not what you wished to see. This year I will be administering the practical myself so that he may show you his full capability.”

“For the safety of our observers, I’ve asked the Battalion's arias to erect a barrier around the stadium. Okumura can chose what his flames burn, Caliburn’s powers are less discriminating. In relation to Caliburn, as this is a friendly spar, neither of us will be attempting to draw blood.” 

More than a few of the arias looked relieved to hear that they wouldn’t have to cope with blood-charged bolts from Angel’s demon sword. Bon wondered if the restriction was meant to head-off any doubts about Angel’s ability to kill Rin in a real fight. 

With that Angel started to remove his coat in preparation for the spar. “Sir Angel! I’ve got money on Rin-kun getting the coat!” a member of the Battalion protested, shouting from the stands.

Angel frowned, “Gambling is an amoral practice. Lightning, take that man’s name down.”

Lightning sat up and tipped his hat back, “Of course I’ve got his name,” he shouted back. “Do you think they take my word for it when it comes to paying off the winners?”

“Incorrigible,” Angel complained shaking his head, but he left the coat on. He and Rin bowed formally to one another. 

“What do you have against my coat anyway?” Angel asked, pitching his voice so that it didn’t carry beyond the two of them.

Rin tilted his face down so those in the stands couldn’t see his mischievous grin. “If I kill enough of those fashion rejects, maybe you’ll start wearing something less ridiculous.” 

“I’ll have you know I designed this uniform myself,” Angel sniffed.

“You know,” Rin replied thoughtfully. “That could be the problem.”

“Brat, I’ll have to chastise you,” Angel threatened lightly as he cut off a lock of hair his long hair.

Rin let his teeth show as he grinned in response. “Lightning-san gave your coat’s survival lousy odds,” he informed Angel and then he charged. As their blades met Caliburn released a shock wave, countering Rin’s greater strength. The younger knight skidded backwards.

“You ought to know better by now,” Angel tsked as he sent blast after blast at Rin.

Rin darted through the minor shock waves, trying to close the gap between them again. “One of these days your timing’s gonna be off,” he said.

“You’re free to believe that,” Angel replied keeping up a steady barrage.

Rin stopped suddenly, thrusting his secondary sword like a lance. A narrow bolt of blue streaked toward Angel. The Paladin leapt over it, losing the tails off his coat. Their swords clashed as gravity reclaimed Angel and Rin jumped to meet him. 

Again, Angel released one of Caliburn’s shock waves just as their swords collided. The backlash through him higher into the air while Rin was smashed to the ground. Rin absorbed the blow, landing neatly even as his feet dented the dirt. “Caliburn’s giving you freebies,” he accused sending a blast of his own at Angel.

“I would not,” the sword sounded offended. “One minor blast for each strand of hair, or a single large blast for the lock.”

Angel twisted in midair and Rin’s fire blasted harmlessly past him. He kicked off the aria’s barrier to return to earth before Rin could follow up with another attack. After that the speed of the spar increased. A good portion of the audience only saw their movements as blurs and snapshots of the pair in the moments where their swords came together.

Rin’s sweat-drenched bangs were plastered to his face, there were spots of dirt and ash on Angel’s formerly shining white clothes and the Paladin was gasping for air. The arias maintaining the barrier had rotated out twice as exhaustion took its toll on them as well. 

Rin tried another charge. At the last moment, as Angel set himself to meet it. Rin ducked under Caliburn’s blade. He dug a clawed hand into the dirt to halt his momentum while he brought the back of his sword around to sweep Angel’s legs out from under him. Angel flipped backwards, just evading Rin’s strike. As he free hand touched the ground he smashed Caliburn’s hilt into the side of Rin’s skull.

Rin shook off the blow as Angel regained his feet. They both retaliated with blasts of power, blue and white bolts collided in the center of the arena with a thunderclap that shook the stands. Rin followed up by peppering the arena with small blasts of flame, trying wear Angel down. 

Angel responded with a shock wave that skimmed across the ground, sending great clouds of dust up to fill the air. Rin leapt over the initial blast then kicked off of the barrier to gain more height. He broke clear of the billowing clouds, thinking them a smoke screen for a second attack. Then the dust cleared and Rin saw Angel’s sharp, competitive smirk. A thick lock of hair drifted toward the ground as the Paladin raised Caliburn. 

“Oh shit,” Rin exclaimed as he pictured Caliburn’s blast radius. He knew he couldn’t manage to get clear of the coming attack in midair, still he had to try. Rin called on his flames, for a moment an image of Mephisto’s wings unfurling flashed through his mind. Rin’s flames coalesced into a massive set of wings. They drove him upwards, Angel’s attack passed beneath him to shatter against the barrier. Mephisto hummed happily to himself. “Feathers, not the bat-wings popular fiction attributes to his father,” he commented.

The arias were too well trained to fall into a stunned silence like the rest of the crowd, their voices rose through the silence in a clear chorus. Angel, too deep in the spar to be taken aback by anything, severed another lock of hair. He split the power granted by the sacrifice into two bolts and loosed them, predicting the direction in which Rin would dodge. 

As startled as anyone in the crowd, Rin simply hovered in midair. Angel’s first bolt caught him dead-center and smashed him into the barrier. Rin bounced off and tumbled to the ground, before he could make it back to his feet Caliburn’s blade was resting against his throat. 

Rin froze. After a moment Angel stepped back and offered him his hand. “Good job,” he said as he pulled Rin up. “I had to sacrifice three inches of hair.” Once Angel was sure Rin was steady on his feet he let go of Rin’s arm. They bowed to each other, ending the spar as formally as it had begun and the crowd cheered.


	2. Descend

“Up!” Angel’s strident voice woke Rin and Bon from a sound sleep.

“What?” Rin mumbled rubbing at his eyes while Bon pulled a pillow over his head.

“It’s January fourth and there have been no reports of Kallikantzaros mischief anywhere in the world,” Angel said. 

“Ummm… Good?” Rin asked sleepily.

Angel’s statement hit Bon like a bucket of ice water. “Not good, world ends in forty-eight hours bad,” he told Rin

“Shit,” Rin exclaimed jerking upright. He tried to grab Kurikara while pulling on his clothes then grimaced when he realized that he couldn’t get his shirt on over his sword.

While the two boys scrambled into their clothes Angel continued his mission debriefing. “Kallikantzaros are Kin of Beelzebub. They spend the year attempting to saw through the roots of the world tree but during the twelve days of Christmas they are able to enter Assiah and cause mischief. Fortunately for us they always do. While they neglect their purpose to cause trouble the damage they’ve caused over the year is healed. When they’re forced back to Gehenna on the Twelfth Night the tree is whole again and they must start over. It took the True Cross’ analyst ten days to note the lack of Kallikantzaros activities, as Surugo says, that leaves us two days to determine why they are still at work and stop them before they succeed in bringing about the end of the world.”

“The three of us will be making an initial survey of the situation, traveling by Pheles’ portals, we’ll reach the Gehenna-gate Chinoike Jigoku within two hours. Lightning will follow with the rest of the Brigade by plane. It is our mission to provide enough information to form a battle plan when they arrive tomorrow morning. That will leaving us a day to prevent the world from ending.” 

“Plenty of time,” Bon remarked drily as he buckled his holster on over his long Exorcist’s coat. He grabbed a book-bag labeled ‘Mesopotamian’ from a selection of various civilizations. 

Rin slid Kurikara into it’s position beside his other katana and wakizashi. “So we get rid of those Ka-cowlick things and everything’s good right?” 

“The Kallikantzaros are demons, but in their efforts to destroy they unknowingly serve the necessary function of pruning the tree,” Angel corrected Rin. “We must discover what has prevented their yearly sojourn to Assiah, put a stop to it, keep them from the Tree for twelve days to allow it to heal and then round them back up so that next year won’t be disrupted.” 

Once the boys were dressed, Angel led them to a small garden door set into a hedge and unlocked it with one of Mephisto’s keys. The door opened up on a busy street, there was nothing recognizable about the city to Rin’s eyes. They hurried to the end of the street, climbed a narrow fire-escape then another key took them from the building’s roof entrance to a covered shopping street with no end in sight. Rin smirked at the sign for Mandarake’s right across from Mephisto’s door and guessed the large anime and manga shop was the reason his otaku older brother had created this particular gate. 

The three of them wove through the shoppers until they were outside and Angel was able to hail a cab. As they drove toward the next gate Rin glanced at Angel hesitantly. “Um… so about the Exam. I know my life’s not riding on it this year, but do you know if I passed?” he asked.

“You passed,” Angel said, not looking at Rin. 

“Really?” Rin grinned, happy but a bit uncertain due to Angel’s manner.

“I haven’t seen your official scores, but Zi looked over your general test. He says you passed,” Angel confirmed. 

“Of course you passed,” Bon said gruffly. “You worked hard on your short-comings all year.”

The taxi took them to a building with a large ferris wheel on the roof and another key took them from HEP Five to the gift shop build beside Chinoike Jigoku, a near-boiling hot, blood red springs, and unknown to most of the visiting sightseers, an actual gate to the underworld. 

As it was just past one in the night, the gift shop was dark and empty. Rin and Bon followed Angel past racks of tacky souvenirs and small bottles of the skin care products made from the mud of the Bloody Hell Pool. “Think Izumo would laugh?” Rin asked picking up a bottle of moisturizer as he walked past.

“Does Kamiki even have a sense of humor?” Bon replied. “But I think Noriko would like something from this place. Hey, Angel, this stuff’s been checked out as safe before we let them go selling to tourists right?” 

“Save the world first, gift-shop for your girlfriends later,” Angel huffed.

“He’s just grouchy because he didn’t think of it,” Rin whispered loudly to Bon. “Think we should tattle to Renzo, so he can pass it on to his mom?”

Bon shook his head. “I still can’t process him being Renzo’s step-father.” 

“Would you two focus?” Angel snapped. He pushed open the door from the gift shop. They stepped outside. Steam rose from the blood-red pool, under the moonlight the rocks jutting up from the water took on weird and demonic forms. Angel glanced over the notes he’d scribbled in a small book, then held a large key of polished ebony over the water and recited a short phrase in a language none of them recognized. The waters receded revealing a stairway disappearing into the depths of the earth. All business now, Rin and Bon followed Angel into the darkness. As they descended Rin caught flashes of dark, sluggish rivers flowing through caverns and foreboding gates out of the corner of his eye but when he turned to look there was nothing to see but the crudely hewn tunnel walls. 

They continued descending the steep, narrow stair until finally the passageway opened up on vast cavern. A massive treetrunk broke through the roof of the cavern, splitting almost immediately into a tangle of roots. There were messy stacks of pruned surface roots scattered all over the room. Beetle-like demons, slightly smaller than an average human with saw-toothed jaws half the length of their bodies swarmed over the roots, sawing away at them. They were guarded by thirteen whip-wielding ifrits. 

Bon scowled at the ifrits remembering their attack on the Myo’o Dhari salamanders a year and a half ago. “Looks like Iblis isn’t contenting himself with just ordering the murders of any of his subjects who hate Assiah less than he does, he’s going straight for destroying the world.”

“These guys don’t unknowingly serve some useful purpose right?” Rin asked Angel, eyeing the ifrit darkly.

“Ifrit are simple thugs,” Angel said. “Iblis’ enforcers, of absolutely no earthly use.”

“Think we can take a baker’s dozen?” Rin asked him.

Angel looked torn, then his expression went blank. “Surugo, go back. Report to Adept Light when he arrives. Rin?”

“I don’t think-” Bon began.

“Let’s do it.” Rin exclaimed over Bon, his eyes beginning to glow as he reached for his flames. 

“We’re gambling the fate of the world,” Angel pointed out as he ran his palm over the length Caliburn’s blade leaving behind a crimson edge. “Don’t hold back.”

Rin nodded and switched Kurikara to the second sheathe, keeping his heart protected but unsealed. His ears and fangs lengthened, his nails sharpened into claws, flames coalesced around the end of his tail and formed horns on his temples.

Bon glanced doubtfully between the two of them, but he hesitated to voice his objections in the face of Rin’s obvious enthusiasm for the plan. Reluctantly he started backing up the steps.

“Let me make the first move,” Angel ordered, pointing Rin toward a scattered grouping of ifrit. “Remember, within the same kingdom the stronger demon triumphs, but piercing your opponent's heart still speeds things along.”

Angel moved quickly along the wall, trying to get a bead on a tight grouping of four ifrit that wouldn’t include the World Tree as collateral damage. Rin slunk between piles of debris from the Kallikantzaros’ efforts over the year, trying to get close to one of his targets before Angel struck. 

“Angel Slash!” Angel exclaimed, the red-tinged blast from his sword disintegrated three of the four Ifrit he’d targeted and left the fourth with only half a wing. Rin leapt at the closest ifrit, impaling it before it realized it was under attack. In less time than it took Rin to kick the corpse off his sword his flames had burnt out it’s heart. He didn’t pause, engaging his next target while the ifrit was still staring at Angel. The blond Paladin quickly finished off the Ifrit he’d injured. Then Angel cut a second line along the top of his forearm as he turned and blasted another pair of ifrit out of existence. 

The third ifrit Rin went after took to the sky before he could reach it. Rin slashed the air, unleashing a bolt of blue fire that severed the ifrit’s head from it’s shoulders. “The King of Flames told us you’d come, pretender to the throne,” one of the four remaining demons addressed Rin.

“Too bad for you.” Rin narrowed his eyes as the ifrit dodged his first attack with a quick stroke of it’s wings. He sent a hasty barrage of fire bolts at the ifrit then turned and ran for the tree. While the ifrit dodge his initial attack, Rin kicked off the tree’s trunk, gaining altitude and unleashed a final blast from above. As it perished, the ifrit smirked at Rin. “I am honored to end your rebellion, although it costs my life,” it declared and the floor crumbled and fell away around the roots of the World Tree. 

Rin twisted in midair and managed to grab one of the roots as he fell. Further from the tree, Angel never had a chance. He was sucked instantly into the portal opening beneath them. The opening continued expanding, quickly consuming the stair as well as the cavern. In his reluctance to leave Angel and Rin behind, Bon was caught in the ifrit’s trap as well. See the two of them fall, Rin sheathed his sword, released his hold on the tree and dove in after them. 

Once caught in the malstrom beyond the portal Rin found that they weren’t simply falling they were being sucked away, spun round and tossed about along with massive boulders that had been the ground just a few moments earlier. Then Rin sensed Karura manifest. //You’ve got Bon?// he shouted mentally.

//Got him,// Karura replied. //Worry about yourself and the Paladin.// 

Rin saw Angel several yards away. The Paladin was making use of the falling boulders to control his descent. Skill as he was, Rin figured Angel could keep himself from being crushed by the debris falling with them, but they and everything around them was rapidly approaching terminal velocity. All the skill in the world couldn’t save Angel from hitting the ground with enough force to reduce him to a bloody smear. Rin wasn’t even sure if his own heighten strength would be enough to save him from the fall. 

//You’re descended from an angel,// Karura reminded Rin. //Wings are part of your heritage.//

//Just forget about the Fallen part right?// Rin replied, trying to recapture the moment during the previous day’s test where he’d flown.

//Fly! You’ve done it before,// Karura commanded. //Where we’re going Ryuji won’t stand a chance without you.//

The flames wreathing Rin exploded into a bonfire then shaped themselves into wings. Rin spread them wide, from tip-to-tip his wingspan was more than four times his height. For a moment he hovered as the storm raged around him. Then Rin tucked his wings in tight and dove for Angel. As the Paladin leapt off another falling boulder Rin caught him under the arms. He tried to swoop upward but Angel’s weight was more than Rin’s wings could bear and they dropped precipitously. Rin flapped his wings furiously, gritting his teeth as he strained against the double burden. 

“Let go!” Angel commanded. “You’ll kill us both trying to save me!”

“I can do it!” Rin insisted. And gradually his flight was leveling out, instincts taking over, allowing him to make better use of his wings. Their fall turned into a controlled glide. 

“See to your aria,” Angel said, switching tactics. He reached up and pinched Rin’s wrist, forcing him to let go. 

Rin matched Angel’s renewed fall. “Karura’s got him,” he replied. “Stop being stubborn and once we get out of this tell Lightening I listened to him about ‘sometimes the best way to protect him is to get out of the way and let the experts do their job.’ This is only the second time I’ve flown you know!” He grabbed Angel out of the air a second time.

“I’ll take my chances on my own in that case,” Angel said.

“Trust me Sensei,” Rin insisted. “I’ll crash softer than you would on your own.”

“Left!” Angel shouted. Rin veered sharply to avoid a boulder the size of a small car then tumbled for a few moments before regaining control.

Karura swooped past them. Bon was clinging to the phoenix's legs, looking terrified and a bit green in the face. //We can’t fight the current,// Karura warned. //Follow me down.//

//Lead on,// Rin replied as he tried to mimic Karura’s flight.

A few minutes later the sky opened up. The stones that had been carried along with them began to drop toward the ground rather than swirling madly around them.

//Up!// Karura commanded.

Rin spread his wings wide then drove himself into the sky. And then they were clear of the debris, hovering high above an alien landscape. The smell of sulphur permeated the air. Slowly boiling mud pits dotted the patchy white and yellow slopes, interspersed with springs of iridescent blues and malevolent reds.

“Gehenna,” Angel breathed in shock. Then he started coughing harshly. Rin heard wracking coughs coming from Bon as well.

“Coal Tars,” Karura explained. “Too small to be seen but as plentiful as dust motes.”

Rin nodded and wrapped both Bon and Angel in his flames, burning the microscopic demons from the air before the two humans could breathe them in.

“Can we fly back out?” Rin asked.

“No,” Karura said as they descended. “The portal has closed. We’ll have to find another gate… Somehow.”

When they were several yards above the ground Rin dropped Angel. The Paladin hit the ground and rolled, absorbing the impact and coming smoothly back to his feet. Rin crashed gracelessly into one of the hot springs as he tried to land. His flame-wings dispersed and he floundered in the hot water for several moments before dragging himself on to the shore. 

“You okay?” Bon asked.

“Yeah, Flame-Demon, I guess I don’t burn- Or boil,” Rin replied after coughing up a mouthful of water. He focused for a moment, using his flames to burn the water from his clothes. 

Then Rin took the time to switch his swords so that Kurikara was in its own sheath and sealed but his flames didn’t diminish. With a look of budding panic Rin looked at his hands, they were still the clawed hands of a demon. He reached up and touched his ears, as he’d feared they were still elongated and obviously pointed. “I can’t turn it off! Why can’t I turn it off?” 

“Breath!” Bon exclaimed thumping him on the back. “We’re in Gehenna,” he reminded Rin. “Kurikara is a portal to Gehenna, allowing your power into Assiah, your sheath is the gate. Closing the gate doesn’t do a damn bit of good if you’re on the wrong side of it.” 

“I won’t stay this way?” Rin asked staring at his clawed hands.

“Once we’re back in Assiah everything’ll go back to normal,” Bon told him with a great deal more certainty than he felt.

“No time,” Karura cautioned. “We have to find a way back to Assiah before the inhabitants notice us.”

Angel turned around slowly, making a survey of the alien landscape. “Which way?” he asked the phoenix. Silence answered him.


	3. Endless Day

In the end there was nothing to suggest their chances of finding a portal back to Assiah were better in one direction over another, so they chose to head toward the towering cliffs Karura had spotted in the distance and hope for better footing there. Down among the hot springs the ground itself was hot beneath their feet, it warred with the chill air and created rippling mirages everywhere they looked. Apparently solid ground could be nothing more than a crust over searing hot sludge. The sky overhead was an ugly grey but diffusely bright, wearing on the eyes and unchanging hour after hour. 

Karura flew above them relaying the information about the terrain to those below. The three exorcists, wreathed in Rin’s blue flames walked in single file. They were certain it was only a matter of time until the eyes they could feel on them tired of waiting for the landscape to kill them. 

Hours passed. Rin rotely prodded the ground in front of him with a long root they’d scavenged from the debris that came through the portal with them then stepped forward. The moment his weight came down on the new patch of ground it gave way. Angel quickly swung his root around, Rin grabbed it as he plummeted into the superheated sludge and together Angel and Bon pulled Rin back onto solid ground. 

Rin glowered at the steaming mess covering him to the waist. 

“You may not burn, but you can still drown. An hour ago you wouldn’t have made such a careless mistake,” Angel stated. He glanced up at Karura. “We need to find a place to make camp.”

Karura nodded and wheeled away, spiraling out from their position.

Rin grimaced distastefully and the flames around him brightened, burning the mud off his clothes. “Save your power for what’s essential,” Angel scolded. Then he sighed. “They may know how far we have to go to get to a gate. The reason they haven’t attacked may be that they’re willing to allow starvation to do their job for them.”

“We’ve got supplies,” Rin pointed out.

“A few weeks of ration bars,” Angel agreed, “and with your flames to purify it I think it’s safe enough to drink the water.” 

“That long?” Bon asked.

“If gates were common Assiah would be overrun with demons,” Angel said. “In truth we’re already dead, we just haven’t accepted it yet. As soon as the Battalion realizes what has happened to us we will be listed as having been killed in action. Exorcists who are taken by Gehenna do not return alive. ”

“Screw that,” Rin snarled. 

“You do change circumstances somewhat,” Angel allowed. “Suguro and I can breath here.”

Karura returned. “This way,” the phoenix said. He lead them to a sheltered niche between several boulders. It wasn’t a cave, but it kept the winds off them and put a wall at their backs if something decided now was the time to attack.

“Suguro, first watch, wake me in two hours. Okumura, you’ll take the last shift. Once we’ve all rested we’ll continue,” Angel decided.

Rin took off his jacket and, using it for a pillow, curled up near the spot Bon had picked for his watch.

“We’ll rotate the middle shift,” Bon told Angel firmly. “You need unbroken sleep as much as Rin and I.”

Angel grimaced then nodded. He leaned back against one of the boulders, Caliburn’s hilt under his hand, and closed his eyes. As he slipped into sleep Angel was struck by the impression of turquoise eyes staring through him. 

“I remember you.”

* * *

_“It’s the Paladin.”_

_Angel frowned at his classmates’ awed whispers. “We’re supposed to be assisting with the Exwire Exam,” he reprimanded them, receiving only irritated glares in return. Still, in the end, the temptation to gawk proved too much even for Angel._

_The Paladin, Shiro Fujimoto, was a tall, light-haired man with round, metal-rimmed glasses on a beaded chain. To Angel he didn’t look particularly remarkable but rumor had it that Fujimoto could outshine any of the Arc Knights in their area of expertise. He was the first Doctor-adept named Paladin in over six hundred years as Doctors were primarily seen as support personnel. The previous Paladin-Doctor had been appointed as the Black Death swept across Europe, Shiro Fujimoto was simply the uncontested best that the Order of the True Cross could field._

_The Paladin escorted a slight girl with long wavy hair toward the True Cross’ administration buildings. Fujimoto’s hand under the girl’s elbow was solicitous but the general air of wariness about him made Angel think that the girl was both a prisoner and still a threat. Then she turned, for a moment her eyes caught Angel’s across the square. Angel would remember the fury in her turquoise gaze long after she was led away._

_Five months later he would see her again as she was led to a pyre before the assembled members of the True Cross from Pages up to the Paladin. “Yuri Egin,” the old man in red robes intoned, as he stood before the Grigori’s dias. “You have one last chance to repent your sins and repudiate Satan.”_

_“You mean I’ve one last chance to sell out my child to save my own skin,” the girl spat. “I do not consent. I will protect my child to my dying breath.”_

_“You’re defiance accomplishes nothing,” Ernst Egin stated coldly staring down at his rebellious daughter. “Through the auspices of the True Cross the power of God will overcome the demonic protection your lover has granted you.”_

_“So this is a test of your faith against mine,” the girl said. She stepped toward the pyre. “Let’s see whose god is willing to intervene on their behalf today.”_

_Angel superstitiously glanced at the verse he’d copied onto an index card. His recitation scores weren’t as abysmal as his pharmacology scores but they still weren’t anything to brag about. He’d been working all year at bringing them up but it was only two more weeks until the Exorcist Exam would be administered again and he wasn’t secure enough in his abilities to trust this single verse to memory when the Order called on him, on all of them, to act as an aria._

_“Then by your own words your soul is damned,” Egin spat. “Burn the witch,” he ordered._

_The girl was lashed firmly to the stake. As the pyre was lit Angel, along with all the other assembled exorcists began chanting. Angel tried to focus on his diction and rhythm as the flames reached the girl and she began to scream. His voice faltered and he grimaced, ‘Can’t even manage when the verse is printed right in front of you,’ he castrated himself. ‘How could you ever hope to qualify as an exorcist?’_

_One of the exorcists in the group nearest the pyre threw back his head and screamed. Blood poured out of his mouth and eyes then he exploded into blue flames. It was only the start of the massacre. One after another the exorcists fell before Satan’s flames. Angel flinched as the man standing beside him was consumed. Then he felt an incredible pressure against his brain. “He is mine!” Caliburn shrieked. “His blood and soul were promised to me eighteen generations ago. He is mine!” And the pressure receded. Stammering Angel tried to resume the chant._

_At the pyre Egin staggered through the earthly flames licking at the girl’s legs as he himself was burned by Satan’s blue flames. Even as he collapsed he cut the ropes binding the girl and she stumbled into the night._

_An eternity later or just a few moments, Angel could never be sure, the blue flames died out leaving behind devastation._

_“Damn you Mephisto! Let me go!”_

_Angel glanced up, trying not to give in to the urge to collapse to the ground shaking. He saw the Paladin shove away a purple haired man in an eye-searing chartreuse suit._

_“I will not allow you to throw your life away for nothing Shiro,” the second man said. “Even I would have been slaughtered without mercy had I gainsayed him in this. And shouldn’t you be doing something? There are survivors.”_

_The Paladin sighed and looked over the carnage with the eyes of a Doctor. He noticed Angel standing among the fallen. “Boy, start checking for anyone with a pulse,” he ordered._

_Angel nodded jerkily._

_Then the Paladin turned to the second man. “Mephisto, will you help? There are too many, they’re dying too fast.”_

_“When have I ever refused you the Gift of Time?” the second man replied fondly._

_The next thing Angel knew the strangely dressed man- no demon, was right in front of him, tapping his cheek in a ‘wake-up’ manner. The demon smiled broadly revealing too sharp teeth._

_Across the courtyard, the Paladin was working his way along a line of patients._

_“I’ve slowed time to a crawl for all of Rome,” the demon informed Angel. “But just now I restored you to normal. Anyone you touch will also be restored so long as you remain in contact. So don’t assume someone is dead because you don’t see them breathing… And try not to step on anyone.”_

_The day that followed the Blue Night was one of the most gruelling of Angel’s life. The air in the courtyard stank of burnt flesh. Angel had to stack the corpses against the walls to clear room for Fujimoto to work on the living._

_While Fujimoto and Angel continued triage on the hundreds of victims who’d been packed into the courtyard where Yuri Egin was to have been burned, Mephisto expanded the search to the Academy and Vatican grounds beyond. Before long there were others who’d survived the night relatively unscathed helping their less fortunate colleagues in. As additional Doctors trickled in the Paladin quickly organized them, an emergency aid station began to take shape around them._

_Thanks to Mephisto’s gift of time the sun seemed barely able to drag itself over the horizon. Angel recognized that the slowed time was allowing them to save many lives that would have otherwise been lost but it still felt as if they’d been dropped in Hell. In the slow-moving air the smell of charred flesh didn’t clear. They treated an apparently endless stream of patients and the only readily observed measure of progress was the always growing stacks of the dead along the walls._

_The Paladin stood up from his latest patient and stretched. Casually he walked over to the still smoldering pyre at the center of the courtyard. He took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and to Angel’s dismay, shook one out and lit it off the embers. Fujimoto noticed Angel’s expression and grinned. “Want one kid?” he asked holding out the pack._

_“Our bodies are supposed to be a temple,” Angel informed him primly._

_Fujimoto shrugged and tuck the pack back in his pocket. “It’s not likely I’ll live long enough for these to kill me,” he said carelessly. His gaze shifted momentarily to Caliburn’s hilt poking up from behind Angel’s shoulder. “Though I gotta admit, your odds of getting old are worse than mine. Still, your friend there saved your bacon today. Pretty gutsy, telling Satan himself that he can get in line.”_

_“Thank you,” Caliburn purred. “I’ve waited so long for my sweet little Angel to accept my gifts. I won’t give him up without a fight.”_

_“Shut up you perverted piece of metal,” Angel hissed glaring at Caliburn. Then he told Fujimoto, “He is NOT my friend! I didn’t ask for his assistance anymore than I asked to be saddled with him. I have no intention of giving him so much as a lock of hair, let alone my life.”_

_“Good luck with that kid,” Fujimoto said as his gaze shifted to something beyond Angel. A look of relief crossed his face and Angel turned to see a ten or eleven year old girl with bright red and yellow hair hauling a much larger person into the courtyard. “Shura-chan! Good to see you in one piece,” Fujimoto called._

_The girl dumped her burden onto an empty pallet and skipped over to them. “Like I would have lived this long if I didn’t know when to duck and cover Old Man.”_

_The Paladin chuckled. He put out the butt of his cigarette and started back to his patients. Then he stopped and glanced back at Angel. “Good work today. I know this wasn’t anything an Exwire should have been thrown into.” To himself he continued. “Not that any of us were ready for it. Damn well should have been. What did we expect? Don’t care who you are, no one’s gonna to stand by idly if you try to burn their lover and unborn child alive. Why the hell didn’t we wait? Mephisto swore that the sword’d be a clean way of dealing with the child once it was born. Why’d they have me take it if they weren’t going to wait? Ah well, it’s not as if nothing came of the effort. Least the Myodha got their plague cured in return for the sword, even if we’re too damn impatient to get any use out of it.”_

* * *

Angel woke from his dream at the sound of grit crunching beneath Bon’s feet as the younger exorcist walked toward him. “I’m up,” Angel said feeling as if he’d gotten no rest at all. Bon nodded, he lay down with his back against Rin’s and in a few moments his breathing evened out. 

While he kept watch Angel glanced down at his hands and the blue flames dancing over his skin. The flames had same warm and comforting feel to them as a winter fire in a drafty house, nothing like the murderous flames from that night despite their color. Still, perhaps the similarity was enough to stir up memories of the Blue Night and the endless day that followed it. Angel glanced at Rin and thought, ‘The one day in which I encounter all of your parents, biological and otherwise. I never knew quite what to make of Shiro Fujimoto. He wasn’t what I thought the Paladin should be, much too irreverent. And then I became his predecessor. He’d resigned the post fifteen years earlier but it didn’t matter, it was him I was compared to; the rebellious Paladin who excelled at every Meister where I am an obedient knight who managed to qualify for most of the Meisters, somehow.’

When his two hours had passed, Angel shook Rin awake. “How was your sleep?” he asked. 

Rin yawned and stretched. “Nice, I kept dreaming about when I was a little kid. Good memories, about Yukio and Dad- Shiro.”

Angel decided his nightmares had been just that. Or at least if they had been caused by demonic influence it didn’t seem to be affecting Rin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the anime on the Blue Night Shiro was locked in a cell because he was suspected of having gotten Yuri pregnant. In the manga after Yuri’s pregnancy was known Shiro was in Kyoto ‘borrowing’ Kurikara from the Myo’o Dhari so I’m assuming that he was not suspected of fathering Yuri’s children by the time the Blue Night occurred and wasn't in a cell that night. 
> 
> Also I’m assuming Yuri has refused all medical examinations so no one knows she’s carrying twins.


	4. Egin's Rome

The next ‘day’, as they resumed their trek across the hellish land, the attacks began.

A fire-drake, a two-legged dragon barely larger than a turkey, swooped down on them breathing flames. Rin yanked his sword from it’s sheathe, in the movement of drawing he cast a bolt of flames at the beast. For a moment blue and red flames mixed together then the blue overwhelmed the red and the drake turned to ash.

Angel sensed movement beneath the ground. He stabbed Caliburn deep into the soil and twisted the massive blade. When he pulled it free, a small amount of magma welled up in from the hole, but there was no more movement. “A cherufe and a fire-drake,” he said. “I doubt they were alone. Okumura, keep in mind that if you die we all do. Stay close to your aria.”

Bon saw another fire-drake dropping toward them. “They surround me like bees,” he spat. “They were quenched like a fire of thorns. For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.” The fire-drake vanished in a puff of smoke only to reappear a few meters off. “Well… Fuck.” Bon said.

“What did you expect?” Angel asked as he dispatched the demon with a minor blast, a few strands of hair falling to the ground. “A fatal verse forces a demon back to Gehenna.”

“I don’t have an unlimited supply of bullets,” Bon pointed out.

“I know,” Angel sighed. “Conserve them as much as possible. Verse that weaken should still be effective but they tend to be more broadly targeted than a fatal verse; Okumura and your familiar are also of the Flame Kingdom.”

“Don’t worry,” Rin said with a grin. He spotted another trail of sifting dirt and cut it off with a bolt of flames. “Bon thinks ahead. We already sorted out which ones are safe for me and Karura. Plus he’s good at playing the barrier maiden.”

“You get way too much entertainment out of that,” Bon complained.

“At the rate we’ve been moving we won’t reach the cliffs before they’re on us enmass,” Karura reported drifted back down after a quick aerial survey.

Angel glanced across two dozen kilometers of basin left before they were free of the treacherous terrain. “If we try to fly the drakes will be on us instantly.”

“Let me try something,” Rin said. He took a deep breath, the flames around him brightened as he drew on his power, projecting as much authority and strength as possible he glared at the drakes wheeling above them. “Leave!” he commanded.

The drakes ignored him. “The ifrit that sprung the trap confirmed it was Iblis’ doing,” Angel said. “He is the King of Flames, you can’t countermand his orders.”

With a look of determination, Bon stepped forward and started chanting, his prayer beads clasped between his hands. A barrier formed across the surface of the ground. Still chanting, Bon stepped up onto his barrier, it spread around him until it covered an area of about seven square meters. The barrier moved along with him as he walked forward, straight toward the cliffs. It didn’t float in the air but it distributed his weight over a large area making it unlikely that they’d break through the surface crust. Rin and Angel glanced at each other then stepped up on the barrier-platform as well. They patrolled the perimeter. Karura flew overhead. Smaller and more agile than the drakes, he darted through their ranks pelting them flaming feathers. Bon marched forward, his pace steady but measured so as not to disrupt his chanting. After a few minutes he started to feel the barrier vibrating beneath his feet as the cherufe tried to break through from beneath.

After repeated failures to break through the barrier one cherufe grew bold and began pulling itself up on top. It’s stout claws glowed with a malignant light and the barrier hissed where they touched it. It’s questing snout tapered smoothly back into broad powerful shoulders, if it had a neck it was lost in the muscles bunching beneath it’s glistening orange skin. Rin darted across the platform and cleaved its skull from crown to jaw. As the corpse slipped off the barrier, Rin turned and flicked it’s blood off his sword with a sharp movement, the burning droplets struck several of the drakes like bullets. Angel spotted a concentration of cherufe gathering to cut off their advance, he lopped off a thick lock of hair and sent a massive shock wave into the ground, knocking them away like bowling pins while throwing up great gouts of superheated mud and billowing clouds of steam into the air.

They continued their advance throughout the day. The path behind them was littered with the bodies of the lower class demons who’d tried to oppose them. When they reached the base of the cliffs Bon changed his barrier to create a dome around them. “I’ll take the second watch and renew it then,” he said.

As Angel drifted into sleep that ‘night’ the feeling of being watched that had been with them all day intensified.

“Who are you?”

* * *

_“So thanks for hearing my side, most people don’t bother,” Okumura scuffed his foot on the floor awkwardly._

_Angel shook his head. “Don’t thank me,” he said. “One day the Grigori will order your execution. I will almost certainly be the one to carry out the sentence. Given your rate of improvement it will be damnably hard to kill you in another year or two. Unless they want to assign an entire team to the endeavour, it will have to be me.”_

_Okumura drew back._

_“When that day comes I expect you to fight me with everything you’ve got, everything you’ve learned,” Angel stated forcefully. “Because on that day one of us will die.”_

_Okumura shook his head, his expression one of simple denial. “Why? Why would you teach me to fight if you’re planning on killing me?”_

_“I don’t question my orders,” Angel replied. “Even when they make no sense to me.”_

_“Why would you want me to fight if you’re out to kill me?” Okumura asked._

_Angel stopped. “It will be better that way,” he said after a moment._

_“Why?” Okumura demanded._

_“I-” Angel scowled. ‘If the Grigori ordered Okumura’s execution shouldn’t he want the boy to simply accept it?’_

_“I loath games. You shouldn’t thank me,” Angel finally answered. As he spoke his words came faster and faster. “You are a demon. I am an exorcist. When I am given the order to kill you I will follow my orders as I always do. You should never forget that. Do not allow me to kill you out of some misguided notion that I could possibly grow fond of you. I always follow my orders, the only thing you’ll accomplish is disrupting my sleep afterwards. You are a demon. You cannot change that fact by refusing to act like one. Get out of here! I don’t want to see you anymore! Get out!” For a long time after the door slammed shut behind Okumura Angel stood there staring at the door_

_Eight months later Angel stood at Rin’s side and met the Grigori’s disapproving frowns unflinchingly. “I attest to Okumura’s good character and his dedication to Assiah. He is already a skilled knight. Ordering his execution because his rote memorization skills are poor… Excuse me if I am being dense, my grades as an exwire clearly show that thinking is not my forte. But I cannot see what Okumura has done that his life should be forfeit.”_

* * *

Angel stirred restlessly in his sleep. His brow creased, for a moment his hand tightened on Caliburn’s hilt.

* * *

_The fourteen-year-old exwire carefully straightened his dark uniform jacket then flicked his long braid out of the way and re-settled Caliburn’s sheath across his back with a long practiced movement. A second, smaller falchion blade hung at his waist. He took a deep breath and sternly reminded himself that fidgeting was unbecoming a scion of the Angel family. Still it was taking the class bell forever to ring. He dreaded getting back the results of the Exorcist Exam he’d taken a few days earlier, but not knowing was sheer torture._

_Arthur had heard that students in the newly opened Tokyo branch of the True Cross Academy were allowed to take the Exwire Exam after only four months as a page. It had been ten months after he’d enrolled before he’d been given the opportunity to take the first exam. No matter how well he did on the Exorcist Exam he knew his mother wouldn’t be impressed. There were people in Japan taking the Exam after only ten months of study and Arthur had a sinking feeling that he hadn’t scored well even after a whole sixteen months as a student at the True Cross Academy of London not to mention studying at home to be an exorcist for practically his whole life._

_The class’ instructor, an ancient priest who’d retired from active duty as an exorcist more than a decade earlier, stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat. “All right children, I know it’s pointless to ask you to concentrate on anything else, so the first order of the term will be the results of your Exam.”_

_The class stared up at the old priest expectantly._

_“We have several councilors who will be going over your scores with each of you individually to help determine your plan of study for the next year. Now remember: This is your first time taking the Exorcist Exam, it is essentially a practice run. To pass you’ll eventually need to score a minimum of 70% on each segment and demonstrate sufficient practical mastery to be awarded at least one Miester. I’ll call you in alphabetical order. Arthur Angel, room twelve…”_

_Arthur jumped up toppling his chair in the process. His classmates snickered as the normally graceful boy paused to right the chair then all but ran down the hall to the office set aside for visiting professors. Arthur’s eyes widened when he saw the red robed man waiting for him. “Your Excellency!” he exclaimed pulling himself up sharply and bowing._

_Ernst Frederick Egin gave the boy a grandfatherly smile. “Sit,” he said waving to the chair across the desk from him. Arthur’s test lay face down on the desk, he refrained from snatching it up but couldn’t tear his eyes from it. “Go ahead,” Egin said with genial amusement._

_Arthur grabbed the test and turned it over. On the written section he’d received 68% for verses, 23% on Demon Pharmacology and 88% on Demon Lore. On the oral section he’d received 73% for recitation and 36% for Demon Classification. Nearly in a state of shock, Arthur looked up at Egin, “Are you here to expel me?” he asked in a shaken voice._

_Egin laughed. “Nothing of the sort. Everyone fails the first time,” he assured the boy. “It was your practical performance that caught my eye. Generally we pair first year students against ranked exorcists simply to ensure that no one gets hurt during the testing. Can you picture the chaos if two of your classmates had been allowed to go at each other with live blades?”_

_Arthur felt the knot of terror in his stomach loosen a bit._

_“You, however, defeated a Middle Second Class Knight,” Egin continued. “And you did it with a standard blade. Correct me if I am wrong about your family’s traditions, but the fact you keep your hair braided indicates that you haven’t sacrificed anything of yourself to the demon blade you inherited two years ago?”_

_Arthur nodded._

_“I understand that it is customary to, shall we say, seal the deal by giving the sword several drops of your blood when you take custody of it.”_

_“It’s not required,” Arthur said defensively._

_“Oh you mistake me,” Egin replied. “I am highly impressed that you’ve resisted the temptation and undoubtedly pressure from your family to make use of your demon sword’s powers. I came because I wanted to personally invite you to continue your studies at the Academy of Rome.”_

_“But-” Arthur gestured to his test._

_Egin brushed it off. “Too many exorcists pollute our cause by relying on demons to do their fighting for them. In the next five years I expect to be named to the Grigori. Then the True Cross can be remade in a more pure mold. I need people like you supporting me.”_

* * *

_Two months after Arthur began classes at the True Cross Academy of Rome a nervous-looking woman took the podium while their regular instructor stood of to one side and looked on. “Today we’ll be testing you for Tamer aptitude,” the woman said in a whispery, apologetic voice._

_Arthur looked up in surprise. The Academy of London had stopped training Tamers five years earlier. It had been his understanding that the miester had fallen out of favor with Rome._

_A boy in the back row raised his hand. “Do we have to take the test?” he asked. “I mean, if you don’t want to be a Tamer what’s the point of everyone knowing?”_

_The woman glanced toward their regular instructor before answering. “Even if you are able to summon a familiar you can opt out of training as a Tamer. But you have to take the test.”_

_“The test is simple,” the woman continued. “I’ve prepared a number of seals for you. Just prick your finger, touch the blood to the seal and say whatever comes to mind. If a familiar answers your call you can send it back to Gehenna by tearing the paper. Now form a line along the wall and come up one by one.”_

_Arthur promptly followed orders while most of his classmates dawdled and ended up at the front of the line. “Don’t you dare,” Caliburn rumbled in his ear. “I won’t be cheated on.”_

_“As if I want to be saddled with another perverted demon,” Arthur hissed back, “but orders are orders.” He walked to the front of the room and accepted a seal from the woman._

_“You’ll regret it,” Caliburn snarled quietly._

_Arthur pressed his bloody thumb to the seal. “Um- Come forth. I, Arthur Auguste Angel, command you,” he tried with grim determination._

_“He’s mine!” Caliburn shrieked for the whole class to hear. “I will not share him! He is MINE!”_

_The other students eyed Arthur and Caliburn warily. “You might have mentioned that you already had a familiar,” the woman murmured._

_“He is not my familiar,” Arthur declared. “Caliburn is my family’s burden and prisoner.”_

_“I could be your partner, dear Angel, if only you’d accept my gifts,” Caliburn cooed._

_“When Hell freezes over!” Arthur snapped._

_“Parts of Gehenna are quite cold my Angel,” Caliburn returned before subsiding._

_“Er, you can sit down,” the woman said and proceeded with the testing._

_Out of a class of nineteen three students summoned familiars. Once the testing was done the students had divided themselves into three groups. Arthur returned to his original seat after being dismissed, but he was the only one. The three students who had been identified as potential Tamers clustered together near the front of the room and the woman who’d been brought in to test them, presumably a Tamer herself. The students who hadn’t summoned anything put a deliberate distance between themselves, the three potential Tamers and Arthur._

_When classes started up again the following fall Arthur would be the only one of the four thus singled out still enrolled at the Academy._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A cleaver falchion has a shape like a meat cleaver, as close to Caliburn as I could find in a real sword, but they were only a yard in length. Using the outstretched hand to nose estimate of a yard, I’d guess Caliburn is roughly a yard and a half.
> 
> Psalms 118:12 - They surround me like bees. They were quenched like a fire of thorns. For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.


	5. Mentor

“Who are you?”

“The Order’s Paladin… Told them, can’t be both his mentor and his executioner.”

* * *

_Angel gave the three upperclassmen confronting him a disinterested glance. He estimated that they were at least two years older than he was but still wearing exwire jackets rather than the calf-length coats that indicated a ranked exorcist. Angel couldn’t see any tells for the tall one on the right, but the red-head in the center had a fighter’s stance, a knight-hopeful and the heavy-set one on the left was clearly a dragoon-candidate from the bulge under his jacket._

_“The thing is, we don’t buy that you’re not using that demon of yours as a crutch,” the tall one said. It was far from first time this had happened since the tamer aptitude test the previous spring but it was the first time someone outside of Angel’s class had taken it upon themselves to question his honesty and his ability._

_“Yeah, the whole sissy braid thing? That’s just you saying you don’t use your demon pal to cheat.” The would-be dragoon was practically bouncing with eagerness. Angel frowned. His classmates were obnoxious but nothing ever came of their harassment and he’d long since decided that having friends was over-rated. Even in London his peers had never liked him and within his first month of attending an Academy instead of being tutored at home Angel had convinced himself that he didn’t he need them or their nonsense. This felt different. There was a charged air to the three older boys that put Angel in the mind of battle._

_“We want real proof you aren’t secretly making sacrifices to it,” the other knight-candidate, clearly the leader of the trio, concluded with a nasty grin. He glanced around at the small crowd of students who’d gathered to watch the altercation. “Strip,” he ordered._

_“No,” Angel stated. His stance shifted slightly in preparation for violence._

_“I guess we’ll just have to make you then,” the eager one exclaimed as he and the tall boy lunged at Angel._

_Angel side-stepped the dragoon and drove his fist into the tall boy’s windpipe in a single fluid movement. Without hesitation he took the fight to the leader of the little gang. The older knight-hopeful managed to knock aside Angel’s punch but wasn’t ready for the speed of the follow-up kick that caught him along-side the head. He dropped like a puppet with the strings cut._

_The last boy recovered from his failed attack and turned to see both his friends laid out in a matter of seconds. The dragoon-candidate pulled his gun. In a flash, Angel scooped up a handful of gravel and pitched it side-arm into the other boy’s face. Then he grabbed the gun and wrenched it out of the older boy’s hand, breaking several fingers in the process._

_Arrogantly Angel tossed the gun into a nearby fountain. “I don’t mind an impromptu spar but at least make me break a sweat,” he sneered, speaking to those who’d gathered to watch as much as to the three he’d dispatched._

_The crowd silently parted and allowed Angel to pass._

* * *

_“Don’t resist.”_

_Before Angel’s sleep fogged brain could digest the order he was yanked out of bed and forced to his knees. Reflex took over. Angel shoved himself backwards ramming his skull into the the face of the person holding him. When the hand on his arm loosened he twisted free and grabbed the sword under his bed. Hearing a gun cocked Angel swept the still sheathed blade toward the sound. The heavy falchion blade knocked the dragoon’s feet out from under him._

_There was a loud crash as the door of the dorm room was thrown open. Angel whispered a quick verse, throwing up a weak barrier as he came to his feet and discarded his sword’s sheath._

_“Exwire Angel, stand down!” Angel recognized the voice of his knight-mentor, Upper First Class Exorcist Talwar, and lowered both his sword and the aria barrier he’d created._

_With the fight stopped Angel took a moment to look around and try to make sense of what was happening. There was a bullet hole in his roof and the small dorm room was crowded with people in exorcist’s trenchcoats: Two were holding Caliburn in barrier gleaming with power, one was on the floor with a bloody nose and another was picking himself out of Angel’s wardrobe. Talwar stood in the doorway, forcing the last exorcist’s gun toward the ceiling. “Arthur, you need to surrender now,” the older exorcist said. “You’ve been accused of using your demon sword against your fellow exwires.”_

_“I never use Caliburn,” Angel protested as he laid his falchion on his bed._

_The knight he’d bloodied grabbed Angel’s arm and wrenched it viciously behind his back then handcuffed him. “You asked for what happened,” Talwar reprimanded the other knight._

_“Respectfully Sir, this is a matter for the Inquiry Branch, you have no business here,” the second dragoon, apparently the squad leader, said as he freed his arm from Talwar’s hold._

_“Of course I do. Exwire Angel is my student,” Talwar said. “Not to mention you’re all damned lucky I caught wind of this foolishness. If I hadn’t intervened, my bet is at least two people would have died tonight. Utter stupidity when all you really had to do was let him wake up enough to recognize you and surrender.”_

_“We couldn’t take any chances. Not if he’s begun using Caliburn’s powers,” the other exorcist protested._

_“Did he actually reach for Caliburn?” Talwar asked. “No. You were prepared for that and wouldn’t have gotten half as trashed if he had.” The older exorcist shook his head. “I can’t believe we’ve sunk this low. A gaggle of schoolyard bullies get humiliated and it ends with you lot dragging a kid out of bed in the middle of the night.”_

_“Three seventeen-year-olds against one fourteen-year-old and he walks away clean while they’re lucky none of them died: A crushed larynx, a fractured skull, we still don’t know if the last boy’ll keep his eye.”_

_Talwar sighed. “How many times have I told you to fight nice against your fellow humans?” he asked Angel. “Most of your classmates aren’t as advanced in their training as you are. You can’t go around hurting them, even in… Let’s call it an informal spar.”_

_“The last one pulled a gun on me,” Angel protested._

_“Well none of the witnesses reported that part,” Talwar replied. He glanced at the other exorcists. “But it explains his broken fingers, now doesn’t it?”_

_“We’re not here to try Exwire Angel, just to arrest him.”_

_“Then talking to you is a waste of my time,” Talwar said. He put a hand under Angel’s elbow and helped him to his feet. “Well, get on with it. Lead the way to someone with the authority to use their head for more than growing hair.”_

_Angel spent the rest of the night in a cell beneath the True Cross’ Admin Building. Early the next morning Ernst Egin arrived outside the cell looking sorrowful._

_“I didn’t do it,” Angel told him. “I swear, I’ve never called on Caliburn’s powers.”_

_“I believe you,” Egin assured him. “But it is still a very serious accusation. We have to prove your innocence beyond any doubt. I’ve arranged for your trial to be today. We need to head this off before any rumors gain momentum.”_

_Angel nodded. “Has my mother been informed?” he asked uncertainly._

_Egin grimaced. “She was ecstatic to hear that you’d given in to the demon sword. She’s petitioning for your withdrawal from the True Cross rather than allowing you to prove your innocence. It is her feeling that your family’s goals and those of the True Cross no longer align since we consider attacking a fellow student with demonic powers to be a punishable offense.”_

_“They attacked me,” Angel protested. “I only defended myself... And I didn’t use Caliburn!”_

_“I know, I know,” Egin said placatingly. “Some members of the student body are overzealous in trying to rid the True Cross of demonic influences. I know you are only Caliburn’s jailor not the sword’s conspirator. But children sometimes fail to reach true understanding and act on appearances.”_

_Later that morning Angel was led from the cell to a shadowy courtroom. As he stepped into the pool of light concentrated on the defendant's stand Angel realized he wouldn’t be able to see either his accusers or those who would judge him._

_Talwar stepped up beside Angel and patted him on the arm. “What this comes down to is one person’s word against another’s,” Angel’s mentor said addressing their invisible audience. “Exwire Angel says he didn’t use his demon sword in the brawl yesterday with his three of his classmates. They say he did.”_

_“How else could a little brat like that win against us?”_

_Angel recognized one of his tormentor’s voices. “Because you’re pathetic,” he shot back._

_Talwar sighed. “Impolitely put but essentially true. Exwire Angel is from a long-standing exorcist family. He’s been trained as a knight since birth and was invited to study at the Academy of Rome because of his talent. Exwires Cancion, Karabin and Mes, like most bullies, picked what they thought was an easy target. They are older, larger and outnumbered Exwire Angel, but they started their training a mere two years ago and only one of them is studying to be a knight.”_

_“Arthur Angel does hold a demon sword, does he not?” A new voice asked._

_“Yes,” Talwar admitted. “He inherited the demon sword Caliburn upon his father’s death two and a half years ago. Since then Angel has made a point of not using Caliburn… As the squadron who arrested him can attest to.”_

_“The demon sword is powered by blood sacrifices,” Egin’s voice rang out from the darkness. “A simple examination should prove his assertion that he has never used the sword.”_

_Loud, obnoxious laughter filled the courtroom._

_“Pheles, you aren’t welcome here!” Egin snapped. “Haven’t you realized that yet?”_

_“A necessary evil, wasn’t that what your last secret cabal was forced to conclude?” Pheles replied lightly. “One of many. Oh how it amuses me to see your expression when confronted with such truths, Ernst Frederick Egin: The Order of the True Cross, like all other exorcist sects, is dependent on power lent to them by benevolent deities like myself. No matter how you curse that fact you cannot change it.”_

_“If you’ve finished inflicting your presence on us, we have serious business here,” Egin growled._

_“Yes, yes, the matter of Exwire Angel and his silly little fight. However, my dear judge and jury, what I said about necessary evils is entirely pertinent.”_

_“How so?” a new voice asked._

_“Whether or not the boy has ever used the powers Caliburn granted to his family is immaterial,” Pheles said. “The True Cross always has and always will use fire to fight fire, to pretend otherwise is absurdity. The only question here today is whether or not he used Caliburn’s powers against these worthless brats, which is fortunate. Given the size of Caliburn’s blade you might, possibly satisfy yourselves that the boy has never bloodied himself with it. But you will never be certain that he hasn’t cut so much as a strand of his hair.”_

_Angel heard whispers rising from the jury and audience._

_“Thus it is fortunate that there is both a simple and entertaining way for either accusers or accused to substantiate their claims,” Pheles continued his voice effortlessly drowning out the whisperers. “Let them fight again. I shall even offer my services to see that Caliburn is unable to interfere. If the accusers speak true, I’m certain they would be eager to reclaim their honor… After all the three of them were ignominiously thrashed by an underclassmen, one of the year’s youngest freshmen in fact. If there were extenuating circumstances they must wish to prove that they aren’t so pathetic as they appear to be.”_

_Everyone in the audience could hear the predatory smile in Pheles’ voice as he continued, “Or perhaps not. If they lied then there is no reason to think that the outcome would be any different than before. You still have one eye left to lose, yes? And you, so lucky that there was a Doctor-candidate nearby and sufficiently skilled to clear your airway before you suffocated. And lastly, our little ring-leader, the force of a blow needed to fracture a skull? If the angle had been just slightly different it might easily have broken your neck. But, of course, everything will be different when Exwire Angel’s demon sword is contained. You won’t be in any danger of being maimed or dying should the three of you pick another fight with him. Isn’t that right?”_

_“I- I recant,” one of the older exwires said. After a moment the other two followed suit._

_Pheles laughed softly. “So you do have a sense of self-preservation after all. I’ve seen Caliburn in action with several of Exwire Angel’s predecessors and from the nature of your injuries, I can conclude that the only way you would think your accusations were at all plausible would be if you had never seen Caliburn’s power unleashed.”_

_The trial wrapped up quickly after that. As he was leaving Angel saw Egin confronting a tall man wearing an archaic, lime-green suit. “Now they’ll always question whether or not he’s used the demon sword,” Egin accused._

_“Ahh, did I tarnish your little symbol?” the other man said mockingly, his hat cast his face in shadows. “No matter. Today they frown upon him because he may have used the sword. As soon as there’s trouble they’ll beg him to use it. Humans talk endlessly about their principals but when the rain comes their memories are so very short.”_

_“I will never turn to demons for aid,” Egin declared grandly._

_“Who cares that you are a stubborn old man?” the other replied. “You’ve served your purpose and now your star is falling. The child growing in your daughter’s belly will ensure that your day is done.”_

_As Pheles predicted Egin fell from favor within a few short months, blamed for inciting the Blue Night. Since he’d disassociated himself from Angel after the trial, Egin’s fall had little impact on the young exwire. Angel eventually passed his Exam and continued climbing the ranks of the True Cross for the next fifteen years until he was named Paladin. And then Angel was ordered to become the knight-mentor to Egin’s half-demon grandson, the inheritor of Satan’s flames._

_“I heard you up and wandering about the apartment all night,” Lightning remarked._

_“It was nothing,” Angel said. “I’ve been called to another council meeting about Rin.”_

_Lightning waited._

_“When I first started at the Academy of Rome, I was put on trial because of Caliburn,” Angel continued. “My mentor was the only one who spoke for me without having ulterior motive.”_

_“Sounds like someone I would have liked to meet,” Lightning said._

_“He was killed on a mission while I was- indisposed,” Angel finished awkwardly._

_“It wasn’t your fault.”_

_“You always say that whenever she comes up, no matter how tangentially,” Angel remarked._

_“I was there, I know what happened but you still make it sound like you had a case of mono,” Lightning replied, “So I think it bears repeating that you aren’t responsible for what she did.”_

* * *

“There’s something big coming,” Bon called in a low voice, waking Angel and Rin. He gave them a moment to gather their wits then said, “It went through my outer barrier like it was paper.”

“And the small fry are following in it’s wake,” Karura added as he landed on Bon’s shoulder.

Rin and Angel scrambled to their feet and took positions between Bon and the threat. They waited until they saw the eight foot humanoid shambling toward them, every movement opened cracks in the creature’s rocky crust revealing glowing magma beneath. The Cherufe had pulled themselves out of the ground and followed after it like loyal dogs while the fire-drakes flocked around it.

“Your verse Suguro, followed by barrages from Karura and Okumura,” Angel instructed.

“So naught was the answer of his people except that they said: slay him or burn him; then Allah delivered him from the fire; most surely there are signs in this for a people who believe,” Bon shouted. The flames wreathing the cherufe’s lizard-like bodies dimmed. “Karura, seal of Fire Powder!” he exclaimed and Karura took to the air. The phoenix beat his wings, raining down flaming feathers on the weakened cherufe and their master.

Rin drew his sword. Bracing the blade against his free hand he recited, “Agni Meeley Purohitam Yajnyasya Deva Mritvijam Hotoaram Ratna dhatamam,” one of the sutra Ucchsma had taught him to help control his demonic powers. A sheet of blue flames exploded from Rin’s sword, the fire-drakes and the cherufe who had survived Karura’s attack burned to ash. Even the greater demon that led them was staggered as the blue flames washed over it.

Angel didn’t wait for it to recover. Caliburn gave a satisfied hum as Angel pulled back the sleeve of his coat and cut into his forearm, the white cloth was already speckled with red from previous cuts. The paladin lunged through Rin’s flames and drove Caliburn’s glowing red blade into the creature’s stoney chest. It grunted and reached up to grab Caliburn but Angel yanked his sword free, spun round and decapitated the demon.

In the stillness that followed the short, decisive battle Rin and Bon stared across the ground at their enemies’ fallen forms, startled by the devastating effectiveness of their attacks.

“I take it we’re all thoroughly awake now?” Angel asked rhetorically. Once the last of his blood was absorbed into the demon sword he sheathed Caliburn. “If I told you to go back to sleep it would do no good so we may as well walk a few more hours. Once the adrenaline has worn off we’ll stop again so the two of you can get your full measure of sleep,” he declared. Angel ignored how worn he himself felt although he had already taken his turn to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quran Chapter 29, verse 24: “So naught was the answer of his people except that they said: slay him or burn him; then Allah delivered him from the fire; most surely there are signs in this for a people who believe”
> 
> Brahma sutra 1: In the Rig Veda, the first word of the opening verse is ‘Agni’. It says… ‘Agni Meeley Purohitam Yajnyasya Deva Mritvijam Hotoaram Ratna dhatamam’ The Vedas glorify the worship of Agni, fire. Agni is verily Narayana. The first sound of the Vedas is Agni.


	6. Rising Sun Girl

“Don’t they ever get tired of this?” Rin complained a few days later as he scattered a number of cherufe reinforced by several ifrit with a wave of flames from his sword. Angel moved in to take out the survivor. Caliburn’s blade glowed red as he cut down the one ifrit that managed to dodge Rin’s flames.

“You wouldn’t have normally used blood for one ifrit,” Bon observed with a frown.

“Blood and hair both require time to regenerate,” Angel explained. “I’ll stay on my feet longer if I put off the point where I only have blood left to offer as long as possible.”

Rin noted that Angel’s hair, which normally fell to his belt, was now only just brushing his shoulders. He remembered that Bon was down to his last three cartridges of ammo even though the Aria-Dragoon was using them very sparingly. “They’re wearing us down,” he realized.

“Yes,” Angel agreed flatly.

Bon started to say something then paused as he saw a fire-drake dive bombing them. His eyes narrowed and he chanted a quick barrier spell. The drake struck the barrier, dazed, it hung in mid-air. Bon’s voice dropped to a low growl as he made a fist and the barrier collapsed on the demon crushing it.

“Picking up some stuff hanging out with Kinzo?” Rin asked. Where Bon was notable for the strength of the barriers he could create, Kinzo had a reputation for creativity. The singer’s attention to and control over tone allowed him to adapt his barriers with great fluidity and precision.

Bon shrugged. “Being stationed in Tyoko is getting his band in wider circulation and your two schedules are complimentary.” While Rin was up before dawn for his apprenticeship with the True Cross’ chef, Kinzo was out till after midnight playing gigs. Still, Bon sometimes felt like he had to justify accepting Kinzo, for accepting and even encouraging Renzo to find his own path instead of following the one their families had laid out for them.

“If they’re trying to exhaust us what I don’t get is why they’re letting us sleep at all. It’s not like they’re shy about throwing cannon fodder at us,” Bon said bringing the conversation back on track.

“Don’t give them ideas,” Angel said but throughout the day his thoughts kept returning to Bon’s observation. Iblis was trying to wear them down with a steady stream of attacks. So far the attacks had come from mostly minor demons that were barely a threat supported by a just enough of their more powerful brethren to make any barrier that would keep them out too expensive to erect. Iblis was conserving his resources while making the three of them exhaust themselves dealing with lesser threats. But in spite of that they were being allowed a few hours of undisturbed sleep each time they tried to rest before a demon powerful enough to break Bon’s shields was sent after them. ‘Suguro is right, it doesn’t make sense,’ Angel was forced to conclude.

“I’ll take the first watch,” the Paladin stated when they set up camp at the base of the cliffs. Rin and Bon agreed and quickly arranged themselves sleeping back-to-back as had become their habit.

Two hours passed and Angel decided against waking one of them for the next watch, ‘They seem to get more benefit from it,’ he thought grimacing as he was reminded of the vivid flashbacks that had been plaguing his sleep. At five hours he admitted he couldn’t maintain alertness any longer and woke Rin. “One hour, then wake Suguro for a second hour if we haven’t been attacked by then,” he murmured before moving off to find a comfortable spot.

 

* * *

 

 

“You kept me waiting... Who did you choose Paladin?”

_“The Paladin is urgently summoned to a meeting with Baltazar the Reactionary just few hours after everyone saw Rin-kun prove that he should be your successor as the Knight-Adapt. Should we be sending Zi’s opinions on Rin’s fitness to the Myodha?” Lightning asked. He’d been sitting up, waiting for Angel to return to the apartment they shared while stationed in Japan._

_“Rin’s standing as an Exorcist is the least of our worries,” Angel replied bitterly. “The Kallikantzaros are apparently still hard at work this year. Pheles has provided the means for us to enter the proper Underworld.” He handed Lightning one of a pair of matched ebony keys. “Muster the Battalion. I’m to scout ahead with Okumura and Surugo. The Grigori have their analysts assembled for you to interview. We’ll rendezvous at the Bloody Hell Pond at o-six-hundred.”_

_“Got it,” Lightning said._

_Angel turned to leave. “You’re right, Rin did very well in this afternoon’s trial,” he remarked. Lightning’s head jerked up, his eyes going wide at the non sequitur. “Do you think he could overcome Caliburn’s Last Extreme?”_

_“Now Arthur? Why?”_

_Angel shook his head. “Politics. I’m expressly forbidden from discussing my orders, I’ve probably already said more than I should. I warned Baltazar that I’m horrific at this sort of thing.”_

_“The Arc Knights and the whole Battalion will stand behind you if you refuse.” Lightning shrugged, “We’re yours to command. Rin’s become popular with the everyone as well, if you tell them the orders you’re refusing they’ll fall over themselves getting in line to tell the old fart to go screw himself.”_

_“I’m no Fletcher Christian, I won’t firment a mutiny!” Angel snapped. “Don’t even suggest it.”_

_Lightning sighed. “No,” he said tiredly. “Rin had a great showing today, but he can’t do what you want. He may have inherited Satan’s flames but his heart wouldn’t be in it. Caliburn would prevail, neither honor nor obligation would be satisfied.”_

 

* * *

 

“Tell me, who did you chose?”

Angel groaned. His orders forbade answering that very question, his mind skirted away from betraying them. Unable to ignore the demand outright his mind misinterpreted it.

 

* * *

 

_As Angel filed into the briefing room the senior exorcist in charge of the mission glanced at his uniform then asked, “Failed the Exam or has your paperwork not gone through yet?”_

_The sixteen-year-old forced himself to come to attention as everyone in the room stared at him. “I failed the Exam Sir,” he reported willing his voice to remain steady. It was only the second time he’d failed Angel reminded himself. In the chaos following the Blue Night the previous year’s Exorcist Exam had been canceled._

_The senior exorcist who, ten years later, would be named to the Grigori as Baltazar grimaced. “We’ve never been more short-handed and you’re a damn good fighter even if you’ve got shit for brains. Under the circumstances I’d think they could have made a special provision.”_

_Angel flushed with shame. He took a seat without replying._

_A few minutes later the last stragglers filtered in and the briefing began. “We’ve located a new manifestation of the House of the Rising Sun,” the future-Baltazar stated. “For those who aren’t familiar, the House appears at sunset and anyone still inside when the sun next rises will be damned to Gehenna when the House vanishes. The prostitutes may be succubi or victims lured into the House on earlier nights. The apparent clientele will also be a mixture of victims and incubi.”_

_“We will strike at sunset, before any new johns arrive and hopefully before the incubi leave to search for new victims to lure into the House.”_

_“Be wary, it will be difficult to differentiate between the demons and their victims. Some of the victims may have emotional attachments to the demons who have seduced them and will fight on their lover’s behalf. The demons are, I repeat, incubi and succubi. They specialize in luring in humans and may attempt to play on your sympathies rather than attacking openly. Treat everyone in the House with extreme caution. Capture when practical but do not hesitate to defend yourselves. We don’t have enough exorcists left after the Blue Night to lose anyone because they were thinking with their dick instead of their head.”_

_“Also remember, we are dealing with the Kingdom of Time. We have from dusk to dawn to get this job done, but once inside the House do not trust your sense of time. If you get the order to pull out, you go. I don’t care if you feel like you’ve only been there for an eye-blink or a lifetime, when you’re told to go, you go.”_

_“You will be broken into three squads. The assault team composed of knights and small-arms dragoons will hunt down the demons in their lair, weakening the colony. Once they’re done a unit of arias and heavy ordinance dragoons will destroy the House itself. The third group is containment, nothing walks away from that House until we verify that it’s human.”_

_The senior exorcist paused in assigning teams when he came to Angel’s name. “Exwire Angel, I’m assigning you to the assault team despite your rank. Of the people at my disposal you’re one of the best suited for close combat. We are undermanned, step up and serve as a full exorcist in this coming year and I’ll see what we can do about making an allowance on the Exam next January.”_

_“I would request that you do not,” Angel replied, standing. “I will happily serve in whatever capacity you see fit but I will also pass the Exorcist Exam on my own merits.”_

* * *

_The interior of the House was drenched in shadows interspersed with pools of light in a variety of colors that seemed to originate from nowhere. Angel crept forward cautiously, Caliburn hung sheathed over his shoulder while he held his falchion at ready. “Choosing that plebian thing over me again?” Caliburn pouted._

_“It may be common but it doesn’t thirst for my blood or my soul,” Angel murmured. “Now hush, I have work to attend to.”_

_Caliburn sniffed haughtily but did quiet as the sound of battle grew closer._

_In front of them a door flew open spilling lurid red light and an embattled exorcist into the hall. Angel took two rapid steps forward. Putting momentum behind his heavy blade he cut through the torso of the incubus who came after the exorcist. The demon turned to face Angel, it’s eyes widening with surprise even as it’s upper half toppled over. It’s clubbed tail twitched a few times then it’s lower half crumpled to the floor as well._

_Angel flicked the blood off his blade then offered his free hand to the fallen exorcist. “Are you injured?”_

_“I’m fine,” the man said, allowing Angel to lever him back to his feet. “Just lost my footing.” The middle second class exorcist sounded faintly shamed at having been saved by a mere exwire._

_Angel nodded. The pair continued down the hall, Angel clearing the rooms on the right side of the hall while the ranked exorcist took the left. Five doors down Angel found a branching hallway behind his door._

_“The place is a damned maze,” the middle second class exorcist remarked. “It bends space as much as time.”_

_“I’ve been following the right-hand wall since I entered,” Angel said._

_“Better plan than wandering at random,” the exorcist allowed. “You good to take that new hall on your own if I keep advancing here?”_

_Angel refrained from reminding his superior of who had saved who. “I am capable.”_

_“With me you could level this whole place for nothing more than a few drops of your sweet blood,” Caliburn volunteered._

_“I told you to hush,” Angel reminded the sword as he turned down the new hall and left the other exorcist behind._

_The hall continued for another hundred yards and several inexplicable turns before ending at a locked door. Angel kicked the door just below the knob, the wood around the lock splintered and the door burst inward. From the shadowy depths came the sound of muffled sobs._

_“Come out into the light,” Angel ordered warily._

_The sobs caught as if their source was trying to stifle them, fearing discovery._

_“Come out here now,” Angel commanded._

_Soft shuffling footsteps answered him. Angel backed away from the room raising his falchion to shoulder height. A pale girl stepped out of the shadows. She held the tattered remains of her dress to her chest, for all the good it did. Long strawberry-blonde hair hung around her face in matted tangles._

_Angel’s mouth narrowed as he caught sight of dark, hand-shaped bruises around her waist. He lowered his sword. After a quick glance up and down the hall, he leaned it against the wall while he quickly removed Caliburn’s harness and then his True Cross Academy jacket. “I’ll escort you to safety,” he promised as he draped the jacket over the girl’s shoulders._

_The exwire’s jacket, which fell just past Angel’s hips, covered the girl almost to her knees. She pulled it closed over her breasts as she stared at Angel with wide green eyes like a startled rabbit. Angel settled Caliburn back in place then sighed and buttoned up the jacket for the girl so it didn’t gape open at her hips._

_“Thank you,” the girl whispered as he stepped away and picked up his falchion._

_Angel hesitated remembering the senior exorcist’s warnings, then gestured for the girl to fall in behind him. In her state of dishabille it was clear that she wasn’t hiding a tail and while he was frequently credited with a complete lack of intelligence Angel could easily look at the bruises on the girl’s waist and envision where the being who’d caused them had to have been in relation to her. He started retracing his steps through the house. After several minutes Angel felt the girl tangle her fingers in the back of his shirt. His first thought was to yell at her back off but she wasn’t obstructing his arm movements and it let him know exactly where she was so he said nothing. Angel made the trip out quickly and turned the girl over to the leader of the containment squad then he returned to his assignment._

_Twenty minutes before dawn the withdrawal order was given. The knights pulled back and the arias who had encircled the House began chanting while dragoons armed with flamethrowers moved in on it._

_The House screamed like a living thing and seemed to writhe as it burned. A thick, choking black smoke obscured the dawn._

* * *

_The next day Angel checked in with the head of the containment squad. “The girl I brought in, the pale red-blond I gave my jacket to, she checked out as human didn’t she?”_

_The upper second class exorcist flipped through the stack of documents on his desk. “Oh yes, her. Daphne she said her name was, couldn’t remember anything else. She might have some demon-blood but nothing significant. What she had by way of clothing was Victorian but with time manipulation there’s no telling how long she’s been there subjectively. We sent her over to the hospital.”_

_Angel started to leave then stopped. “Do you think she still has my jacket?” he asked._

_“I could have someone at the hospital check.”_

_“You don’t have to bother,” Angel said quickly. “It’s my jacket after all and I left it with her. I’ll just drop by and ask.”_

_The older Exorcist shook his head and snickered as Angel left._

* * *

 

 

_“Room number for Ms. Daphne Doe, brought in from the Rising Sun mission,” Angel requested trying to sound official._

_The lower ranked exorcist manning the admissions desk gave him a disinterested look and started thumbing through her records._

_“It’s just, I left my uniform jacket with her,” Angel volunteered. “She wasn’t decent and it was the least I could have done. But it is my uniform jacket so I thought I should get it back. Now that she has clothes- She does have clothes correct?”_

_The exorcist stopped. With her finger resting on the room number she gave Angel a longer look and sighed. “Kid, I know it’s a not worth the breath I’m wasting to tell you this but… Turn around and go home. Your job ended when you pulled her out of that House. Making anything more of it will bring nothing good, either for you or her.”_

_“The room?” Angel repeated, his chin raising stubbornly._

_“313,” the Exorcist said. As Angel walked away he heard her mutter, “Well, I tried.”_

_Room 313 was painted an unattractive shade of salmon that clashed with the girl’s light reddish hair. The late morning sunlight streaming through the high window left her looking pale and washed out. She was holding Angel’s jacket and when she saw him a tremulous smile lit her face. “Sir Knight, you came back,” she exclaimed._

_Angel flushed to the roots of his hair at the naked gratitude in her eyes. “Arthur,” he stammered. “Um, that’s who I am. My name is Arthur. And you are Daphne? That’s a pretty name. They said you didn’t remember?”_

_Daphne nodded, her gaze sadly downcast. “Everything is so strange to me,” she said. She waved her hand toward the digital pump attached to her IV pole. “The physicians and all their devices. I cannot think what I was expecting, but not this. When I think back all I remember is that dreadful place.” She smiled timidly up at Angel. “And you saving me… Arthur.”_

_“I was just-” Angel stammered. Then flushing, he cut himself off. “I’m glad I was able to be of service to you.”_

_“Oh, your jacket,” Daphne said. She held it out reluctantly. “I’m sure you need it back.”_

_Angel accepted the jacket feeling like he was taking a toddler’s security blanket. “Once you’re released would you like me to show you around?” he heard himself offering._

_Daphne’s eyes widened, “I don’t know how to thank you,” she said. “I’ve almost been afraid to leave. Everything is so strange to me. But with you beside me I know it will be alright.”_

_For the rest of the week Angel was a daily visitor at the hospital, coming as soon as his classes let out and staying late into the evening. He cut classes on the day Daphne was discharged so he could be there for her._

_Daphne yelped in surprise and leapt backward when a cab pulled up to the curb outside the hospital to meet them._

_Angel smiled kindly and put an arm around her shoulders, “It’s all right,” he said. “I tried to arrange rooms for you on campus but only students are allowed. So I made arrangements for you to see a few apartments. They aren’t much, but it would be a place for you to stay while you sort things out.”_

_For a moment Daphne looked taken aback. Then she asked, “You’re not taking me home with you?” in an almost teasing tone._

_“I wouldn’t!” Angel exclaimed. “That would be completely inappropriate. I’m living in the Boy’s Dorm.”_

_“You’re quite the gentleman my knight,” Daphne giggled. Then she looked worried, “But truly, I have no means of paying for housing.”_

_“It’s taken care of,” Angel said avoiding Daphne’s gaze. He opened the cab door and offered her his hand, helping her in. Then waited until she’d tucked her long skirt around her legs before shutting the door. He walked around to the street side to get in himself._

_The first apartment was on the sixth floor of a modern building near the city center. Daphne grabbed Angel’s arm tightly when the elevator began to move. Angel patted her hand indulgently. When the realtor opened the door, Daphne stared at the spacious loft with wondering eyes. “No, no,” she protested. “This is much too fine for the likes of me.”_

_“Nonsense,” Angel replied._

_“I’d never feel comfortable here,” Daphne insisted. “And, and, the hospital was close to your campus wasn’t it? You always walked. I, maybe it isn’t meet, but you’re the only person I feel I can depend on. I don’t want to be so far from you.”_

_Angel proudly produced a boxy cellphone. “I programed in my number.”_

_Daphne took the phone and turned it over in her hands curiously. “What is it?” she asked._

_“It’s a cellular phone,” Angel said and received a blank stare. “Er, a mobile? A phone you can carry with you.” He demonstrated the speed dial and showed her his own phone when it rang. “You’ll be able to reach me anytime,” he promised._

_Daphne clutched the phone close to her, “Still, this place is much too grand… And… And odd,” she admitted gesturing to the very modern furniture and the large television dominating one wall of the apartment._

_“Ah, I should have thought,” Angel said. “Perhaps someplace not so new?”_

_Daphne smiled gratefully, “And closer to your school.”_

_The next apartment was in an older neighborhood and much closer to the Vatican City and the True Cross Academy of Rome. The windows were small and there was a wall radiator beneath one of them._

_Angel winched at the recently remodeled kitchen with it’s polished stainless steel surfaces, but Daphne appeared not to notice. She ducked into the bedroom and giggled. “The bed’s so soft. Come see Arthur.”_

_Angel glanced at the realtor then quickly looked away. Daphne leaned out of the bedroom. “This is near your dorm isn’t it?” she asked._

_Angel led her back into the mainroom. He leaned up against the window, guiding Daphne to do the same. “See that tower?” he asked pointing to a sliver of a building just barely visible due to the angle. “That’s one of the campus buildings. My dorm is on this side of campus, just a twenty minute walk from here.”_

_“Then I’ll take it,” Daphne proclaimed._

 “Not her,” Angel mumbled in his sleep. “Mistake.”

Rin glanced over at him, wondering if he should wake the Paladin from what was clearly not a good dream or let him sleep. To his eyes Gehenna was having a much worse effect on Angel than on the rest of them. Even compared to Bon, who was also fully human, Angel looked run ragged from the past few days.


	7. Won't Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started making plans for Lightning before the recent cannon reveals about him… So, I’m sticking with my original plans and cheerfully going AU. 
> 
> All of Angel’s backstory has been an experiment in non-chronological storytelling for me, but this chapter in particular has numerous jumps between different time-periods. Hopefully it works.

“Up and at ‘em,” Bon said nudging Rin.

“What’s attacking us?”

“Nothing,” Bon said.

Rin got up. “Seriously? Since when’s the last time that happened. Hey Angel- Angel?” Rin frowned when there was no reply. He walked over and shook Angel’s shoulder. The older knight remained unresponsive. Rin glanced up at Bon. “They’re attacking us,” he said grimly.

Bon crouched beside Rin to look the Paladin over.

“I don’t get it,” Rin continued. He gestured to the blue flames outlining all three of them. “Nothing should be able to possess you. My flames should burn anything that tries.”

“Cold!” Bon drew back suddenly when his examination reached Angel’s chest. The Paladin’s features were twisted with distress. Bon glanced back at Rin. “Your flames are warm, comfortable but…” He moved his hand back to Angel’s chest, “Ice cold. Something else is disguising itself as part of your flames. A Mare or Oneiroi of some sort I’m guessing. Normally in the field we’d just summon a Baku and let it eat the nightmare but Karura aside neither of us are really Tamers.”

“So what do we do?” Rin asked.

“There are a lot of different varieties of Mare,” Bon said slowly. “I can exorcise it, I mean sure it won’t go far but as long as it’s out of Angel, good enough. But unless I get lucky it’ll take time to find the right fatal verse… We’re going to have to make a stand here while I do the exorcism. We know I can channel your flames. I’m going to set up a barrier and tie it to you. Your flames, your will should keep it strong. You’re going to have to hold it against anything and everything they send at us until I manage to find the right verse. The only other choice we’d have is a running battle while we try to drag Angel along with us.”

“Or you could abandon him,” Karura pointed out. “The Myodha need both of you to grow strong again, we don’t need him.”

At Karura’s bald statement Rin’s face took on the strained, pinched look Bon had learned to associate with an Oath pushing Rin in a direction he didn’t want to go. And even if Karura had a point, it was one that left a sour taste in Bon’s mouth. “No,” he said. “We came to this party together, we leave together,” he declared and Rin relaxed.

“I’ll hold the barrier,” Rin declared confidently, “No matter what’s out there. You just worry about Angel.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Tell me! Who did you choose?” The more forceful demand made Angel aware that he was being interrogated. He tried to force his thoughts away from the answer that was being sought and away from the parts of his past that hurt too much to revisit.

_“Who are you? Why are you helping me?” Angel asked he lifted his head to stare at the dark-haired young man who was dabbing cautiously at the inflamed scratches covering his chest. As he moved Angel’s braid caught in the chains binding his wrists above his head._

_“Me?” the young man’s head jerked up in surprise. For a moment Angel caught a glimpse of startled golden eyes then the other ducked his head again and his bangs fell back in his face. “I’m um Light, two names, right, Lewin Light.” He gave an awkward burst of laughter, “I guess you could say I’m the emergency food supply.”_

He couldn’t move, could barely breath for the weight on his chest. ‘Too close, too close. Something else. Don’t remember.’

_“Matte! Matte!” the slight dark haired woman exclaimed as she fell, her practice sword dropping from nerveless fingers. Angel pulled his next blow before it landed. The woman glanced over at the other five students waiting their turns._

_“Eleven minutes, six seconds,” the boy holding the stopwatch declared. “Officially a new record.”_

_The woman accepted Angel’s hand up. She smiled at him as she rubbed the rapidly forming bruise on her upper-arm from the blow that had ended the match. “Eleven whole minutes, Sensei. You’d better watch out, I might actually win a point in another year or two.”_

“His mentor or his executioner, which did you choose? Answer me!”

Suguro’s chant cleared his mind for just a second, ‘I won’t betray my orders to you!’

_Several weeks after that spar Angel stood outside a crumbling apartment building. Self-consciously he straightened the long coat of a ranked True Cross Exorcist which he wore open over a pristine white dress shirt and breeches, he’d completed the outfit with a white, silk cavate. The only thing not neat and prim about him was the gold hair hanging nearly to the backs of his knees, a few locks loosely bound to keep it out of his face. He glanced at the paper in his hand a second time, finding it hard to believe that this ramshackle tenement was truly his destination, then with a look of resolve he climbed the stairs to the fourth floor._

_Nothing happened when he rang the bell, so he knocked on the door. After a few moments he heard someone stirring inside. “Miss Koizumi, you’ve missed classes for three days,” Angel called._

_The door opened a crack to reveal someone a far sight from the top-notch swordswoman Angel knew from his class. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her dark hair hung in two messy plaits and her clothes looked slept in. “I’m sorry Sensei,” she said in a wavering voice._

_“Miss Koizumi, are you well?” Angel asked with a worried frown._

_A choked sob escaped the woman. Angel stepped forward and caught her as her knees buckled. For a few minutes he remained awkwardly bend over, half supporting her while she sobbed into his shoulder. When it occurred to Angel that Koizumi wasn’t going to pull herself together anytime soon he scooped her up and carried her inside._

_The apartment was a dingy, stuffy little room with a daybed in one corner and a kitchenette in the other. A student desk and wardrobe were crammed at the foot of the bed, there was a sword rack beneath the shuttered window and a doorway suggested a bathroom. Angel looked around the room then tried to set Koizumi on her bed. She refused to let go of his neck and so with a resigned sigh he sat on the bed beside her and patted her hair saying inane things like ‘It can’t really be that bad?’ while trying not to think too much about snot getting on his coat and in his hair and wishing he could understand what she was saying. Being a global organization the True Cross encouraged multilingualism, but Angel had difficulties with foreign languages even when they weren’t broken up by grief-stricken sobbing._

_Sometime later a second young man appeared in the doorway. Despite looking several years older than Angel, perhaps twenty, he still wore the shorter exwire jacket, casually thrown on over frayed cargo pants and a faded tee-shirt. He looked about a day overdue for a shave and a month overdue for a haircut with sable bangs obscuring his eyes. “So?” he said._

_“I don’t believe she’s ill but she won’t quit crying,” Angel told the other young man a bit desperately._

_Lewin Light gestured for Angel to step aside and in a few moments he’d switched Koizumi to crying on his shoulder instead of Angel’s. “Name?” he mouthed as he rubbed her back comfortingly._

_“Sachiko Koizumi,” Angel whispered._

_“Koizumi-chan, what happened?” Light asked, switching smoothly from Italian to lightly accented Japanese._

_Angel listened intently to the torrent of words that poured out of Koizumi and eventually pieced together that someone had died and she was never going to see her baby again, although he was fairly certain that it wasn’t the baby who had died._

_Light waited patiently until Koizumi ran out of words. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” he told her solemnly. “Still I think you’d be able to cope a bit better with something to eat. So, while Arthur here runs down to that little restaurant around the corner and gets us some take out, why don’t you take a quick shower and get cleaned up. I’ll make you some tea. Then we’ll take a second look at this thing and see if there’s anything to be done.”_

_Koizumi nodded. Angel gratefully took that as his cue to leave. Forty minutes later he was back with a loaf of bread and a carton of a thick seafood stew. While he’d been out Light had thrown open the apartment’s single window, letting in light and fresh air. He’d washed the dishes moldering in the sink, taken out the trash and made the bed. Koizumi was cradling a steaming coffee mug between her hands. She had changed into her Academy uniform and her damp hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the base of her neck. Angel was relieved to see that she’d finally quit crying._

_“Good, you’re back just in time,” Light said as he shifted the desk around until the bed could be used as additional seating. He seated Koizumi in her chair and dished up a bowl of the stew for her. Then he and Angel took seats across from her on the bed and got their own food. After allowing a few moments for everyone to fill their stomachs Light said, “So, we haven’t been formally introduced yet. I am Lewin Light, either a stray who followed our illustrious Arthur Angel home or his new side-kick. Between those choices I opt for side-kick. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”_

_“Koizumi Sachiko, nice to meet you,” Koizumi replied automatically._

_“Like you I am a student at our esteemed Institute, the True Cross Academy of Rome, the first and most prestigious of all True Cross Academies,” Light continued. “Our instructors have been kindly illuminating the inadequacies of my self-education for me.”_

_“I’ve found his practical knowledge of demons to be unparalleled,” Angel remarked with a puzzled frown. “And I can say with certainty that I wouldn’t have passed the Exorcist Exam this year without his help in my studies. I have no explanation for his poor test scores.”_

_“Maybe it’s my handwriting,” Light said his voice solemn but his expression full of mischief._

_“I could coach you in calligraphy,” Angel offered sincerely._

_“I’m afraid some shortcoming of birth simply can’t be overcome,” Light sighed._

_“You shouldn’t…” Angel began then trailed off as he caught a glimpse of Light’s expression. “You are teasing me, again.” He turned to Koizumi, “Sometimes I feel his company would be more tolerable if I simply took everything he says at face value… He seems quite respectful in those lights.”_

_Light pouted, “And I thought leaving you tells was being considerate… It’s only people I like who know when I’m making fun of them.”_

_“Lucky me,” Angel replied, deadpan._

_The corners of Koizumi’s mouth turned up slightly at the interplay between the two young men._

_Light smiled at Koizumi, “I understand you’re one of Arthur’s protegee swordsmen?” he asked._

_“My best student frankly,” Angel said._

_Koizumi looked away, uncomfortable with the praise. “Quite a worthless skill given that I turn into a ninny every time I’m faced with an actual demon,” she demurred, gesturing to the lack of a pin on her uniform signifying that she had yet to pass not merely the Exorcist Exam but the Exwire Exam. “Four failures on my record thus far, a bit indicative of my life really.”_

_“Your fiance died in a battle on the other side of the world,” Light said. “I don’t see how you could possibly be said to have failed him.”_

_Koizumi set her spoon down and stared into her half-empty soup bowl. “Take isn’t, wasn’t really my fiance,” she admitted. “I thought he’d come back to me, but… His family hates me. They wouldn’t even allow me to come to the funeral. Better for Renzo, they said.”_

_“Renzo?” Angel asked._

_“Our son,” Koizumi said. “Shima-san was quite blunt with us. We were fifteen, if we tried to keep him we’d have no support from either of our families. The odds of us completing three more years of high school while raising an infant and supporting ourselves were dismal. At best we’d end up scraping by in dead-end jobs and Renzo would suffer the most for our shortcomings as parents. However, Shima-san and her husband were willing to risk censure from their temple by claiming him as their own. Of course I had no place in the future they envisioned for either Take or Renzo. If breastfeeding didn’t benefit a baby’s immune system I have little doubt that Shima-san would not have allowed me to so much as glimpse my son once he was born,” she said bitterly. “I’d hoped… But Take’s gone and...”_

_Angel tensed, anticipating more tears. Koizumi sat there, hands folded, eyes downcast for several minutes, then seemed to recover her poise. She picked up her spoon and began eating again. Angel glanced over at Light and was surprised to see that his friend also seemed to be at a loss for what to do next._

_“Are you worried about your son?” Light asked after awhile._

_Koizumi grimaced. “He’s mine, I want to see him, hold him, watch him grow-up. But the horrible thing is I don’t doubt that Shima-san was right. After all, look at me, what do I have to show for the last four years? A failed attempt at becoming an exorcist and a pittance of a stipend that will most likely be withdrawn when I fail my fifth Exwire Exam come June.”_

_“Your issues with demons aside, you are a superb swordsman,” Angel offered awkwardly._

* * *

Rin paced just inside the perimeter of barrier, his hand trailing lightly along the surface of the iridescent-blue dome as he watched the demons gathering outside: Cherufe, fire-drakes and ifrites were joined by lampads, fire giants, khalkotauroi, soucouyant, dragons and several fire-gods whose ancient dominions had been consumed by Iblis’ Kingdom of Flames. So far only a few of the weaker ones had tested his barrier but when they tried to move again they would be facing a veritable army. Behind him, Rin could hear Angel’s labored breathing and Bon switching languages for a third time, trying to break the mare’s hold on the paladin.

One of the ifrit sauntered up to the barrier. “Not much longer Pretender to the Throne,” he said smiling wickedly as he dug his claws into the barrier. “Once Iblis has dealt with your allies he’ll come for you. Then you and your humans will be our play-toys.”

Rin’s eyes narrowed. Day after day of fighting and running had him on edge. For all that he’d practiced controlling and using his powers with Ucchusma and Karura, Rin had never gone so long with his heart unsealed before. Watching Iblis’ forces gathering against them, a part of Rin wanted to smash through their lines, force them to bow to him, to swear to never threaten what was his to protect.

From the bigger boy who’d made Yukio cry on their second day of preschool onward, Rin’s response to anyone who threatened people he loved had always been extreme. He glared at the ifrit and a tongue of flame reached out of the barrier, wrapping around the demon who’d challenged him. The rest of the horde stepped back warily as the pillar of ash that had been the ifrit a few moments earlier was scattered by the wind.

 

* * *

 

 

“You will tell me!” All subtly gone, claw dug into Angel’s mind. His body was frozen, helpless. He felt needle like pains stabbing into his brain, demanding answers.

_Angel stood at attention in the lobby of the boy’s dorm at the Academy of Rome, his long braid hanging over his shoulder, a phone receiver held to his ear, ‘It would be disrespectful to simply hold the phone away until she gets done ranting,’ he reminded himself, and not for the first time either._

_“Renting a room for this little tart to live in, late for classes, inattentive to your superiors! What would your father think of you Arthur?” his mother demanded shrilly. “He died fighting demons. Your grades are dreadful, you cowardly refuse to make use of Caliburn, and now you take up this this trollop? You’re an embarrassment to his legacy. Your ancestors tamed Caliburn, forced that loathsome creature into Assiah’s service against his kin, they willingly, proudly sacrificed themselves to preserve our world and you are letting them down! You are throwing away their last hope for eternal salvation. Don’t you have any respect, any affection for your father?”_

_“Her name is Daphne. And I don’t need Caliburn to be a good exorcist,” Angel argued. “That’s what Lord Egin said.”_

_“And just look what that fool called down on Assiah.”_

_“My ancestors didn’t force Caliburn into anything, he made a deal with our family and he certainly thinks it was a good one,” Angel overrode his mother. “I don’t want to do anything that makes that perverted demon happy.”_

_“The little tart’s the only one whose opinion matters to you these days, isn’t that the case?”_

_“You can’t blame Daphne for my grades, they haven’t been any worse than normal since I met her.”_

_“True, there is no excuse for your stupidity. Your ancestors are rolling-”_

_“I have listened to you scream at me for,” Angel glanced at the clock on the wall, “twenty-four minutes. It is my turn to say what I have to say!” he shouted. “I love her and I won’t stop seeing her.”_

_“You’re sixteen, I can and will put an end to your supporting that bit of baggage! I’ll freeze your bank account.”_

_“I’ll be seventeen in a few weeks. I’ll marry her,” Angel retorted. “Doesn’t that make you happy? You’ll get a grandchild to take Caliburn when I’m dead. Maybe he’ll be less of a disappointment to you.”_

_“A child raised by you and that-” Angel hung up the phone._

‘No, don’t think about it. Something else, anything else.’

_“You’re certain there’s nothing wrong?” Angel asked doubtfully as he stared down at his newborn son. “He’s so red and well, crinkled.”_

_“He’s beautiful,” the baby’s mother informed Angel sternly and for once Angel’s mother appeared to be in agreement with her._

The weight on his chest, the immobility of his limbs, it was all too close to memories that had already been stirred up.

_Daphne looked lovely and desirable by candle light. As she smiled across the table at Angel there was a healthy flush to her pale cheeks and the red in her hair seemed deeper as it fell in glossy waves over her shoulders. “What is the occasion?”_

_Angel dropped to one knee in front of her as he presented the ring box he’d purchased earlier that week. “Daphne, I’ve never met anyone like you before. When I’m with you l feel like I can do anything. Would you marry me?” His heart was thudding so loudly Angel was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hear her answer._

“No! I won’t remember.”

_The dagger in Lightning’s hand was red to the hilt, his face was blank. “Loyalty goes two ways.”_

 

* * *

 

 

_“Arthur saved me from Gehenna. He’s my hero, so I thought I’d become an exorcist, just like him,” Lewin Light concluded extravagantly._

_The council members stared at him dubiously._

_“I wouldn’t have escaped the creature with my life if not for his aid. He has no love for Gehenna,” Angel assured them a bit desperately. His long hair hung loose around him, dirty and tangled._

_“I want to help Arthur,” Light said edging closer to the exwire. “He needs an Aria-partner right? I know lots of different verses from all sorts of books. Been locked up my whole life, nothing to do but read, you know. And most of the books were stuff exorcists left behind after… Well, you know.”_

_“We will allow you to join the Academy,” one of the Grigori said. “Conditionally. You will be monitored for any suggestion of defection.”_

_“Oh you won’t see any, I promise,” Light said, his voice dripping sincerity and innocence._

_“That’s what we’re afraid of,” the monocled cabinet member muttered._

_Light allowed the innocent mask to drop, “I don’t have enough demon blood for an oath to bind me, but where I grew up people don’t hand out promises lightly. I like Arthur, I’m not planning on hurting him,” he stated simply._

“If you won’t tell me what I want to know, then show me your scars. Let me see them bleed anew.”

_Angel, his uniform pristine, every last strand of his hair smoothed neatly into his braid, smiled down at the girl leaning on his arm, “Where is this surprise of your Daphne?” he asked._

_“You’re so impatient Arthur,” Daphne laughed. “Perhaps I could give you a hint right now.” She steadied herself on Angel’s shoulder as she went up on tiptoe and kissed the corner of his mouth._

_“We’re in public,” Angel protested._

_“Oh don’t be so stuffy Arthur,” Daphne replied. “You’ve proposed after all.”_

_“And you haven’t answered,” Angel said sounding nervous._

_“Soon, soon. Now come on.” She tugged him forward, her long skirts swishing around her legs._

_After a bit Daphne turned into a park. Angel glanced around warily, it was late and the park was poorly lit. He could defend them but he didn’t see the point in seeking out trouble. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”_

_She giggled and hopped up on bench, then wrapped her legs around Angel’s waist, kissing him enthusiastically._

_“Daphne!” Angel protested bringing up his hands to support her. “This isn’t appropriate!”_

_Daphne clasped her hands loosely behind Angel’s neck and swung her weight backward making him stumble into a bench. He collapsed onto it, Daphne on top of him. “Daphne!” he began again only to be cut off by her mouth smothering his. When Daphne pulled back for air Angel smiled up at her, “Is this a ‘yes’?” he asked._

_Daphne leaned in close and smiled, “I would never promise myself to you.”_

 

* * *

 

 

_A bottle of sugar water hung by his head like he was some sort of hamster. Being desperate enough to use it. Being stripped of all bodily control, just because it amused her to make him suffer._

_Shuffling footsteps in the hall. “I’m sorry. I meant to get back sooner. I did look for your sword.” He couldn’t find the energy to be angry at Light, not when he could see that the other youth was barely on his feet._

“I won’t remember!”

_“Shouldn’t you be in Page classes?” Angel asked blearily as Light wrapped a bandage around his arm._

_“You feed Caliburn too much,” Light scolded, disregarding Angel’s complaint about his skipping classes. “He’s going to get fat, no one likes a fat demon sword.”_

_“Keep your opinions to yourself,” Caliburn grumbled._

_“I thought you were opposed to an inglorious end to your arrangement with our Angel,” Light replied._

_“A good reputation does make it easier to find a new connection in Assiah,” Caliburn admitted. “But he’s so tasty, not to mention he starved me of sacrifices for six years!”_

_“Keep the big picture in mind,” Light said._

_“Why do you care?” Angel demanded. “You don’t need me any more. The council gave you a chance, you don’t flinch at the sky anymore.”_

_Light busied himself fussing with the bandages. “You took time out from self-destructing to convince me I could do better than being someone’s food supply,” he said without looking up. “Thought maybe I could return the favor.”_

“You’ll give me something, either your answer or your pain, Paladin.”

_Daphne leaned in close and smiled, “I would never promise myself to you.”_

_“Wh-” Angel was cut off as Daphne kissed him deeply, her tongue filling his mouth. Confused, Angel tried to push her away, but found he couldn’t budge her. He felt dizzy with desire for her. He wanted to hold her but his limbs felt too heavy to lift. And underneath the desire that he knew wasn’t truly him, he felt so shocked that he could only wait for the pain of betrayal to hit._

_“He is mine! Mine!” Caliburn sputtered furiously. “How did you hide yourself, temptress? He is mine! Even Satan recognized my claim!”_

_“Oh shut up, you stupid hunk of metal, without him you’re less than nothing,” Daphne said, sitting up on Angel’s lap as he stopped struggling. “I’d simply throw you away here and now, but there are factions who think your deal has been too generous to Assiah. I’ll win no little favor for returning you to Gehenna.”_

_Caliburn continued railing, but Daphne paid the sword no more mind. She squirmed back a bit and reached between herself and Angel, “Because I know how much you love exhabitionism,” she whispered in his ear. Unable to move, Angel shut his eyes and tried to ignore Daphne’s touch. He burned with mortification when his body responded in spite of himself._

_He couldn’t stop remembering Daphne’s smiles, walking with her at his side. For nearly a year she’d been the one person in his life who didn’t call him an idiot or think he was a disappointment. The one person who’d looked up to him, trusted him to protect her. He’d dreamed about her night after night. The smell of her hair, her skin brought back good memories of other nights, stolen kisses and plans. He’d wanted this with her, defied his family to openly date her, proposed to her. He’d wanted this, but she didn’t want him._

_Succubus. How had he been so stupid not to realize what she was. Angel felt hysterical laughter bubbling up inside of him. He’d wanted Daphne, wanted a life with her. Now he was going to have her whether he wanted it or not, and it was going to kill him._


	8. Prisoner's Dilemma

“I take no pleasure in your misery. Answer my question and I’ll let it end.”

“I have my orders.”

“Then drown in nightmares.”

_Angel woke to the sting of a wet rag dabbing the scratches on his chest. He tried moving his arms and found they were secured above his head. A moment later the rag went away and he heard someone stand and step back from his pallet. Angel opened his eyes and saw a young man around his age with dark hair that looked like he’d cut it himself with a kitchen knife. The young man wore a loose tunic and breeches that didn’t look like they’d come from Angel’s era but were too non-descript to place beyond that._

_The other youth took another step back from the pallet. “It’s not your fault,” he stated in a low, soothing voice. “She’s a succubus. If you get within within ten feet of one your body will react to the pheromones they produce when they’re hunting. There’s no stopping it. Their saliva has short-term, paralytic properties, a few kisses and you’re completely helpless. It will have worn off by now, no permanent side-effects.”_

_“I know that!” Angel snapped, completely missing the rote quality of the speech. “I’m not a complete idiot.”_

_The youth shrugged. “Didn’t say you were. I’ve read lots of books by people who seem smart enough and still think demons are nothing but superstition.”_

_“I’m an exorcist,” Angel argued. “I should have realized what she was.”_

_“Oh, so that’s why she suppressed her demon blood. I’d been wondering,” the dark haired youth said as he went back to cleaning the scratches. “She’s only about a quarter demon, when she suppresses her blood she passes for human pretty good. My bet is she was hunting you, specifically. It wasn’t your fault.”_

_“Who are you? Why are you helping me?” Angel asked._

_“Me? I’m um Light, two names, right, Lewin Light,” he answered as if unfamiliar with the question. Then he laughed nervously. “I guess you could say I’m the emergency food supply. Succubi and Incubi need sex to survive. They don’t need to kill but some get a taste for it or um…. Well anyway, I taste like shit to- Um what name did she give you?”_

_“Daphne.”_

_Light glanced toward Angel’s almost knee length braid, “She was probably thinking Delilah but decided it was too much of a clue. So yeah, Daphne says I taste bad, she’s not likely to get caught up in feeding and kill me. That’s why she keeps me around. If she gets stuck here for a while when the House gets shut down or if she’s getting ready for a long hunt, I’m always convenient.”_

_Angel looked revolted. “We destroyed the House of the Rising Sun,” he stated._

_Light shrugged again. “In one moment maybe, but this is the Kingdom of Time. The House’s present is much more than a single moment.”_

_“Do succubi stay dead if you kill them?” Angel asked, not of idle curiosity._

_“Yeah, the colony owes fealty to Samael but they aren’t suffused with entropy like the House is. Which, um, some other stuff you should know: Daphne’s messed up, by succubi standards I mean. Nothing the colony’s gonna intervene in but… distasteful. They leave her time-space alone, she doesn’t tax them with her perversions…. Um, she likes it that she’d forcing you. When you break, when you stop fighting her, she’ll get bored and kill you.” Light shrugged, “Up to you whether you just wanna get it over with or hang on as long as you can.”_

_Angel focused on the a muffled voice in the back of his head for a moment. He turned to Light, “Help me find my sword and I’ll kill her,” he said._

_Light shook his head, “Don’t like what she does, but I don’t want to get in trouble with her.... Um, you want me to finish patching you up or just go? I can’t get you out of the cell, so don’t bother asking. It took ages to work out how to do it for myself and it’s based on my blood, won’t work for you.”_

_“Let me up at least,” Angel begged looking longingly at the basin._

_Light sighed, “You gotta promise to let me chain you up again, or she’ll know.”_

_“Yes,” Angel said quickly._

_“Yeah, sure,” Light muttered, but he bit his finger and smeared the blood over the manacles’ keyhole, they sprang open in response, “I’ll just go get some food while you’re cleaning up. It’s not great or anything and you might not have much of an appetite but you still need food to recover the energy she took.”_

_As soon as Light turned to leave Angel threw himself at the basin. He torn off the tattered remains of his clothes then scrubbed his skin raw. Once he’d done everything possible to rid himself of Daphne’s scent and the memory of her touch Angel noticed that Light had left him a tunic and breeches like the ones the other youth wore. Angel pulled them on gratefully._

_Not too much later Light returned with an MRE. “It’s the good stuff: 90’s military surplus, not the old WWII ones,” Light said as he offered the package. “I hear they’ve got pizza MRE’s in 2015, but I haven’t been able to trade for any yet.”_

_“Thank you,” Angel said as he accepted the meal and started eating with a grim determination. “You’re right,” he said in answer to Light’s look. “I have to keep up my strength if I’m to have any chance of killing her. Particularly if you won’t help me get my sword back.”_

_“Okay, good luck with that,” Light replied._

_When he was finished eating Angel sat on the edge of the pallet and held out his hands. He clenched his fists, trying futilely to keep them from shaking._

_“What are you doing?” Light yelped._

_“I gave you my word that I’d let you chain me again,” Angel said._

_“But, no one ever does,” Light protested._

_Angel put his hands down, clasping his knees. He frowned, “Then why do you ask?”_

_Light shrugged, “To remind myself not to be a sucker I guess.”_

_“I keep my promises,” Angel stated. Resolutely he offered his wrists again._

_Light took a cautious step toward him and Angel couldn’t prevent the tremble from returning at the thought of being made helpless again. Light sighed. “I can’t,” he said. “I don’t help her. I’m not naive, I won’t risk myself but I don’t help her.”_

_“You don’t make any sense,” Angel complained. “Am I supposed to break my word?”_

_Light chuckled. “It’d keep my life simple,” he said. “Look, no promises, but I’ll check a couple of places for your sword.”_

_“You will?” Angel asked in surprise. “Maybe you should chain me up. So she doesn’t get suspicious.”_

_“If I did that then she’d know something was up.” Light shook his head ruefully. “Maybe I’m being a fool but what’s your name Mr. Keeps-Your-Word?”_

_“Arthur Auguste Angel.”_

_Light held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, I hope.”_

* * *

Rin stood at the barrier. Behind him he could hear the steady cadence of Bon’s voice over the choked gasps coming from Angel. On the other side of the wall of blue flames the demons amassed against them drew back and allowed a tall, broad-chested man with flame-orange hair and dusky skin to pass.

Rin eyed the newcomer warily. “Iblis,” he guessed.

The King of Flames inclined his head in acknowledgement. “It is I. This civil war that you have sparked must end. I don’t enjoy having to kill my own subjects so I have come, pretender to the throne, to demonstrate the insufficiency of your claims.”

Rin snorted, “Tell it to everyone who came to the Myohda for protection from you.”

“Dissidents,” Iblis replied. “The Flame Kingdom isn’t so shoddily run as the Kingdom of Time. My will is law and it will be obeyed.”

“Not by us.” Rin grinned toothily, “One of your thugs said something about you fighting my friends. Probably a rescue party for the three of us. Since you’re here, I’m guessing they’re giving you trouble.”

“I will put down your rebellion,” Iblis replied. “Even if it leaves me with no kingdom to rule. But it strikes me that neither of us truly desires that end.”

“Hell yeah,” Rin agreed. Then his eyes narrowed. “There’s no way I’ll stand by while you murder everyone in your kingdom who hates Assiah less than you do. I never wanted your throne, I just to put an end to your throwing your weight around.”

“I will generously offer you one last chance, little brother. Bow to me, put an end to this war.”

Rin shook his head. “I’ve never dealt with bullies by submitting to ‘em.”

* * *

Trapped in the past sweat broke out on Angel’s brow, his heart raced and he gasped for air.

_The sound of light footsteps approaching his cell sent a rush of adrenaline through Angel. He slid into a guard position with his back against the wall as he waited for Daphne to appear. She rounded the corner a few seconds later then stopped outside of the translucent barrier that kept Angel a prisoner. There was a vitality to her appearance that she’d never had before. ‘Well fed,’ Angel’s mind supplied with disgust. She studied him with an amused expression on her face. “So he’s at least trying to pretend everything’s normal,” she commented._

_“I’ll kill you,” Angel growled._

_“I could simply wait until you fall asleep, it would be traditional,” Daphne replied as she put her hand against the barrier. “It would even be fun, watching you struggle to stay awake and inevitably failing…. But I’ll enjoy this more,” and she stepped into the cell. The barrier rippled like water as she passed through it._

_Angel didn’t hesitate to attack her. He drove his fist into her solar plexus. Daphne coughed up a mouthful of blood, but grabbed Angel’s other hand before his palm strike could smash her nose and drive the splinters of bone into her brain. “Not so chivalrous now Arthur?” she purred as she she bent his wrist back sharply. He yelped as the ligaments in his wrist popped audibly. Angel stomped on Daphne’s foot and threw himself backward, breaking her grasp._

_He glared at Daphne as he backed away from her warily, shielding his injured arm. “You tricked me into mistaking you for a lady, demon,” he accused. Suddenly he shifted from retreat to attach and launched a kick at the side of Daphne’s knee._

_She rolled with the blow and kept the joint intact. “I have to admit I’m impressed that a big strong man like you didn’t try to simply overpower me,” she said when Angel quickly drew back after his attack failed to land._

_“Did you think I’d trust appearances again demon?” he sneered._

_“Be careful or you might forget what I am,” she said mockingly. “Not that I care. I am a demon. Everything of me that was human, that was a victim, perished long ago and good riddance. There are only predators and prey and I am happy to be the former.”_

_“You picked the wrong prey,” Angel snarled and lunged for her. Daphne slipped under his outstretched arm and rammed her shoulder into his stomach. As he doubled over she grabbed the base of his braid and shoved him toward the floor. Angel tucked and rolled, the added momentum threw Daphne off her feet but while she fell through the barrier Angel smashed into it with bone-jarring force. Before he could recover she reached back through and dug her fingers into his throat._

_Angel tried, futilely, to peel her hands away. As the world greyed out he felt her bite his ear. “No wonder there was a bounty on you,” she murmured against his skin. “With a blade in your hands I wouldn’t have had a chance. With Caliburn you’d have been nie unstoppable for any less than a King of Hell. But now? You’re just my play-thing. The bounty will still be waiting when I get bored with you.”_

_Angel woke up chained to the pallet in his cell again The manacle around his injured wrist was cutting painfully into the rapidly swelling limb. Daphne sat casually on top of him. “You’ll have to tell me what you did to get the whelp on your side,” she said. “He’s usually smart than to trust a man.”_

_“Don’t,” Angel protested as she began toying with the ties on his breeches._

_“Men will always betray you in the end,” Daphne continued absently. “Just look at you. You can’t even trust your own body. I won’t need to waste pheromones to make you give me what I want.”_

_“I’ll kill you,” Angel snarled._

_“So you keep saying,” Daphne shrugged. “But from where I’m sitting it doesn’t look likely.”_

Angel’s resistance broke, his painful memories replayed themselves at the Mare’s command.

_Several weeks passed in which Daphne was the only person Angel saw. Or at least he assumed it had been several weeks. Early on he decided that Daphne’s visits were daily and bedsores he could feel developing on his shoulder blades and hips seemed to support that timeline._

_Daphne apparently didn’t want him dead yet, she hadn’t killed him after all, but she didn’t seem to have a firm grasp on keeping him alive either judging from the sugar-water bottle which had been his only source of sustenance. ‘Or maybe she just doesn’t care if I die of deprivation or disease before she gets around to killing me so long as my demise is utterly miserable,’ Angel thought._

_Angel raised his head at the sound of shuffling footsteps in the hall. Several minutes later Light appeared leaning heavily against the wall to stay on his feet. “I’m sorry. I meant to get back sooner. I did look for your sword,” the dark-haired youth said._

_“I take it that you didn’t find Caliburn then,” Angel replied. He couldn’t find the energy to be angry at Light. “I suppose it’s too much to ask you to let me clean up again?”_

_In response Light produced a small dagger and pricked his thumb. He smeared his blood across manacles and they sprang open. Angel groaned in relief as his swollen wrist was freed._

_“I didn’t find the sword, but I had a thought about how I might be able to get you out of here,” Light said._

_Angel’s breath caught._

_“You’re an Exorcist so you know: blood matters in Gehenna. You summon demons with your blood, sign contracts in blood,” Light explained. “You’re not supposed to be able to forge blood, and you can’t, not completely, there’s always some truth in blood. But some truth isn’t the same as honesty. Daphne suppressed her demon blood to fool you into thinking she was human and I’ve got a little demon blood, that’s what let me open your manacles and bypass the barrier.”_

_“I don’t understand,” Angel replied. “How does that help me?”_

_Light held up the dagger, “Ever heard of kids becoming blood-brothers?”_

_Angel was desperate enough not to question whether or not it would work. He just held out his hand._

_Light cut across his own palm then Angel’s. “We don’t know each other not really, but brotherhood doesn’t require that. It’s about my blood in your veins and mine in yours,” Light said solemnly as he clasped Angel’s hand pressing their cut palms tightly together. “Arthur Auguste Angel, I share my blood with you and claim you as my brother. What is mine by right of blood I share with you.”_

_Angel frowned thoughtfully. “Blood is duty,” he replied. “Blood is responsibility that can’t be turned away, set aside or ignored. But I willing accept your blood and offer you mine, Lewin Light, I claim you as my brother.”_

_Light nodded. Without releasing Angel’s hand, he pulled him toward the barrier. Crimson blood dripped from between their clasped hands as he pressed them to the translucent wall. To Angel it felt like wading through mud, but slowly, grudgingly, his hand passed through the barrier. Light stepped through and pulled Angel after him, out into the hallway._

_“What now?” Angel asked._

_“Find out if there’s enough demon-blood in me to activate the House’s passage to Assiah and, hopefully, send you home,” Light replied._

_Angel pulled up short. “You have a key to the door out and you never even tried it in the lock?” he exclaimed angrily._

_“Well-” Light began then broke off. “It’s your home, it’s okay for you. Me, I’ve read about Assiah, read a lot, but… But what if it’s worse?”_

_“It’s not worse. How could you possibly think anything is worse than this hell?” Angel demanded scowling at Light in disbelief._

_“This is all I know!” Light hissed back, his temper rising. “I know how to survive this, what to expect. I read books about Assiah, I don’t even know which ones are real and which are stories. I could try the door to the rest of Gehenna, my blood is almost certainly demon enough to open that one, only outside of the House’s domain I’d suffocate but at least I’d know what I’d be walking into.”_

_“How can you not know?” Angel asked._

_Light pulled out a carefully wrapped book that had been tucked under his shirt and offered it to Angel. Gingerly the blond peeled back the oilcloth wrappings to reveal a family Bible, the binding cracked with age. “I might have been born in Assiah, but I don’t remember,” Light said as he reached over to open the flyleaf. “I just know that my dad and I ended up here. Then he died.”_

_The inside cover of the Bible contained a handdrawn family tree and tucked along the fold was an old fashion photograph. It showed a young couple. The man was tall, with untidy dark hair, he wore jeans and a battered cowboy hat, there was a sheriff’s star on his chest and a True Cross pin on his collar. But Angel’s attention was caught by the woman standing beside Light’s father staring up at him worshipfully. Her hair tucked up under a bonnet, wearing a dark green bustle dress was Daphne._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!


	9. Confrontation

_“Well um, the portal to Assiah’s this way. I guess I’ll finally find out if I’ve got enough demon blood to make it open,” Light said as he tucked his father’s bible away again but Angel wasn’t paying attention to him any more._

_The seventeen-year-old exwire tilted his head to the side, listening intently to something only he could hear, “Caliburn’s waiting for me,” he said._

_“It won’t take Daphne long to realize that you’re free,” Light replied nervously tugging Angel in the direction of the portal._

_Angel shook off Light’s hand and started in the other direction. “This is better.” He smiled dementedly, “I want to say goodbye properly.” Determinedly he staggered down the corridor in the direction of Caliburn’s voice._

_Light took a last glance toward the portal then to himself he muttered, “It’s not as if I knew what I was going to do to save my skin once I’d rescued him anyway.” Then he hurried after Angel. He grabbed the taller youth’s arm and pulled it over his shoulders a moment before Angel could determinedly crash into a wall. Together they stumbled onward._

_Several minutes later the pair found themselves standing in front of a locked double-door. Light huffed and looked pointedly back down the hall in the direction from which they’d come. Angel shook his head. “All right, I’ll try,” Light sighed. His hand was still seeping blood from before, so he pressed his palm against the lock. Nothing happened. Light thought for a moment, then he whispered a quick phrase. Angel felt a gust of wind sweep down the corridor along with a translucent mist. The mist dove into the lock and a moment later it burst apart. The double doors swung open revealing a veritable dragon’s horde of treasure but Angel only had eyes for one thing._

_Caliburn vibrated with anticipation as Angel pulled him from his sheath. “Finally,” the sword breathed._

_“She’s coming,” Light said as the first traces Daphne’s pheromones tainted the air._

_“Good,” Angel replied. He severed the last few inches of his braid, just above the tie. As his hair slowly began to unravel he turned back toward the door and raised Caliburn to the ready, his breath quickened with anticipation. Light faded back into the shadows._

_“How did you ever get out my little toy?” Daphne appeared in the doorway, blood-red hair cascading around her shoulders, her pale skin luminant with good health. Then she saw Angel and her eyes widened in shock. She dove back down the hall a moment before a massive bolt smashed the door and walls around it to smithereens._

_“Don’t bring the roof down on us,” Caliburn murmured softly. Angel didn’t reply but his eyes gleamed with madness as he stalked after Daphne. He pursued her through the twisting passages, unleashing bolt after bolt, striding through the resultant rubble, uncaring of the danger to himself. As the blood oozing from the torn skin around his wrists trickled down through his fingers and was absorbed by the hilt of the sword the bolts took on a red tinge and increased in destructive power._

_Daphne darted ahead, trying to lose him in the maze, when she suddenly came upon a dead end. “No!” she screamed looking up at the walls over her. “I’m of the colony, don’t do this to me!”_

_The House didn’t respond in words, it’s mind was too inhuman for such things, but Daphne understood that, in the face of the damage Angel was wrecking, it no longer considered a relationship with her symbiotic. She was being sacrificed to pacify the demon-sword wielder._

_She doubled back, trying to find a way past Angel before the House could shift again. The pheromones wafting around her thickened. A look of utter revulsion crossed Angel’s gaunt face as his body began to react. When he caught up to her Daphne’s posture shifted, she looked up at him with a fragile expression through her bangs. “Arthur, you love me, You don’t want to hurt me.”_

_In a smooth movement Angel reversed Caliburn, laying the massive blade along his throat. “You’re right about one thing: I don’t want to hurt you, I want to obliterate you,” he growled. “I loved you and you betrayed me.”_

_“You’d kill yourself just to destroy me?” Daphne asked, straightening and casting off her previous manner like a cloak._

_“Gladly.”_

_“My Angel no!” Caliburn exclaimed. “I don’t need such a sacrifice for the likes of her.”_

_“This way even the memory of her will be gone,” Angel said._

_“She’ll win!” Caliburn shouted._

_Before Angel could act Daphne crumpled to her knees with an expression of shock and pain on her face. As she fell Light was revealed standing behind her, a dagger bloodied to the hilt in his hand._

_“How could you?” Daphne asked turning toward him. “I’m your mother.”_

_Light shrugged. “Loyalty’s a two way street, Mom. I tried telling myself that you having sex with me was because you loved me… but I was never that good of a liar.” He watched dispassionately as Daphne slumped to the floor. “She’s as good as dead,” Light remarked to Angel. “But if you feel like finishing her off...”_

_Angel turned, he swung Caliburn viciously cutting an arc through the air. A red crescent of light flew from the blade, bisecting Daphne. As the life fled from her she left behind the body of an ancient withered crone. For a moment it seemed Angel would take another swing at her, but after staring at the unrecognizable corpse for several minutes he lowered his sword and turned and walked aimlessly away._

_Light jogged after him. “It’s not safe to wander here,” he said._

_“She was your mother?” Angel asked belatedly._

_“Yeah,” Light admitted. He backed away from Angel warily. “I guess I should have made the opportunity to do that a long time ago. I just… Well, there’s me realizing what she was, what I was to her and then there’s deciding to kill her. It’s a big leap.” His gaze strayed to the sword still in Angel’s hand. “You mad that I didn’t make it soon enough for you?”_

_Angel shook his head then turned and started to wander away again._

_Light awkwardly tried to steer Angel back in toward their original destination. “You need to get back to Assiah,” he said._

_“Why?” Angel asked._

_“You want to escape, get back to your world. That was the whole point wasn’t it?” Light asked._

_“Killing her was to be my last battle, the one I can’t lose,” Angel said. “But Caliburn didn’t want my sacrifice and you killed her.”_

_Light caught Angel’s sleeve. “The portal’s this way,” he said taking charge. He led Angel through the maze of tunnels, around the twisted vortexes of time, to a wall that looked as if it were made of pulled taffy. “This is the place,” Light said. He grabbed Angel’s wrist and pressed his bloody hand to the center of the vortex. Slowly it began to unwind, leaving a black void at its center._

_Angel drew back and stared impassively as his way back to Assiah. “What will you do?” he asked._

_Light shrugged noncommittally, “I’ll figure something out. With her dead there’s no claim on me. I’m far from the only mostly-human around the colony. I can always find someone sane and hook-up with them. I tasted bad to her ‘cause there’s a bit of a instinctive imperative against feeding on your own off-spring. I can find someone demon enough to need- well food.”_

_“You should come to Assiah,” Angel said impulsively. “If you’re too human to be anything but food here, you should be in Assiah.”_

_“I-” Light faltered suddenly looking as off-balance as Angel had been since killing Daphne. “I can’t. I told you, I’ve never been anywhere but here.”_

_For a moment Angel stared at his hand, Light’s blood drying on it as well as his own. “You don’t belong here,” Angel countered with growing determination to bring Light back to Assiah with him._

_For a long time Light stared searchingly at Angel then he nodded. “I need to get some things if I’m really leaving,” he said._

_Once his mind had been made up Light led Angel purposefully through the burrow-like maze of halls and passageways until they reached a small room made utterly claustrophobic by the crudely built bookshelves covering every wall from floor to ceiling and jammed full of books. They weren’t simply full, they were stacked two rows deep in places and when even that failed to suffice the books had been turned on their sides and slid on top of the ones standing upright. Angel’s eyes were drawn to a shelf of brightly colored board-books for children who couldn’t be trusted not to chew on the pages just below four shelves full of bibles. An unmade bed stood, like an island, in the center of the room and a dresser had been crowded out into the hallway._

_Light grabbed a satchel out under the bed then went to the shelves after a moment’s consideration he started stuffing books in the bag. Angel watched, bemused as Light finished filling the first bag then pulled a second one out from under the bed, he filled that one just as quickly and went back for a third._

_Angel frowned as he recognized the latest bag, “Is that mine?” he asked accusingly._

_Light flinched and quickly shove the bag in question back under the bed._

_“It is!” Angel exclaimed. “What were you doing with my bag?”_

_“Books,” Light admitted gesturing to the room around them._

_Angel stomped over to the shelves of bibles and reclaimed a familiar copy. Light pouted at him, “My last New King James version fell apart,” he said. “New International Version is better for translations but they took all the poetry out of it.”_

_“Then buy your own when we’re in Assiah,” Angel snapped._

_Light gaped at him for a moment before realization dawned. “Bookstores!” he exclaimed. “And libraries, I read about them. Whole buildings full of books. Those are for real?”_

_“They’re commonplace,” Angel stated. “Most towns have at least one of each. True Cross Academy students all have access to all sectors of the Vatican Library…”_

_Light’s face took on a euphoric glow. “Over a million books, 75,000 codices, forty-two kilometers of shelves,” he murmured to himself. “And it actually exists.”_

_“But what to did you mean about translations?” Angel asked._

_“The bible, it’s better than the Rosetta stone,” Light elaborated, snapping out of his rhapsodic trance. “I’ve got English, Hebrew, French, Japanese, Latin, Shawnee, Russian, Greek, German, Aramaic, Konkani, and Klingon translations. I’ve got nothing but time here. I read a lot, whatever I can get my hands on. I’ve pretty much memorized the bible, so I use it to translate languages I don’t know yet. I haven’t come across many other books in Klingon or Shawnee though.”_

_“Klingon is a fictional language,” Angel pointed out._

_“I guess that explains it,” Light replied lightly, but his knuckles turned white on the straps of the bag. “I know I should have waited-”_

_“Until I was dead?” Angel accused._

_Light glanced away, as he did the neck of his shirt gaped and Angel caught sight of welts around his neck._

_“Did you get all these books from her victims?” Angel demanded, although he was suddenly finding it harder to hold on to his anger._

_Light shook his head. “The rest of the colony wouldn’t mess with what was hers, but they have some,” he grimaced, “pity for me. Most of the books come from them. Plus, I trade translations, Gehennans don’t just know languages. You know whatever your host knows but you lose it after a while unless you merge. Anyway, I’ve got some contacts here and there, they’d get me business. I keep whatever I translate and I get paid in books mostly. Books are good,” Light added a few moments later. He trailed a hand fondly over the spines of a shelf of fiction. “The only dependable company I’ve ever had.”_

_“That will change,” Angel promised. He shouldered one of the bulging bags Light had already packed. “Are you planning on bringing any clothes?”_

_“Naw, takes too much room,” Light replied. “Think we could get three bags each?”_

_“Two,” Angel negotiated, considering the weight of the bag he’d picked up._

_“I’ll make the third bag a small one,” Light countered._

_Twenty minutes later they stood before the distorted wall once again. Angel had tied his hair up so that it didn’t drag on the ground and they were both weighed down with bags of books. Once again they pressed their bloody hands to the wall, this time when it telescoped open they walked through._

_They found themselves on a hillside overlooking Rome on a clear night. Light gazed around himself, mouth hanging open in awe. He started at the city-lights spread out below and the stars above. “I read about it,” he breathed. “But I never realized how big the world was.”_

* * *

_A week later Angel walked into the Academy’s on-call center to add his name to the duty roster for the first time after vanishing off the face of the Earth for six weeks. “You missed this year’s Exam,” the future Baltazar remarked._

_“I know,” Angel replied. He stared at the floor, his unbound hair falling around his face like a curtain. “You were informed of the circumstances?” he asked and the senior exorcist nodded. “Then you know I should have been failed even if I had taken it. I let her deceive me.”_

_“You came back alive. You’re not completely hopeless.”_

_“You’re very kind to say,” Angel replied stiffly. “But everyone warned me against her.”_

_For several moment Baltazar studied Angel silently. “Well, I told you: Thinking’s not your strong suit. Doesn’t make you any less talented a knight. Follow orders and you could still be an asset to the Order.”_

* * *

“There is one thing I think you’re right about,” Rin told Iblis. “You and I could settle this. We don’t need anyone else getting hurt.” 

Iblis laughed, “You’re honestly challenging me little brother?”

Rin’s mouth thinned as he listened to Angel’s increasingly labored breathing and the pauses between the passages Bon was reciting as the Aria had to searched his memory for verses that might help. “Promise you’ll put a stop to the attacks on my friends and we can have it out.”

“Or I could smash that barrier and kill you where you stand,” Iblis threatened.

Rin’s eyes blazed, “Doubt it.”

“I’ll indulge you, little brother,” Iblis said. “I give you my word that your companions will remain unmolested as long as you remain unbowed.”

“Deal,” Rin said.

“Ms. Yuri,” Iblis called to Rin’s utter shock. “Leave off. I’ve promised your brat that his friends would have a respite until he’s been put in his place.”

The flames around Angel’s chest flared. A ball of blue fire separated itself from the flames Rin had wrapped the two humans in to shield them from Gehenna. The ball of flames passed through Rin and Bon’s barrier as if it wasn’t there. Then the flames lit beside Iblis and reformed themselves into a slight woman with curly brown hair and turquoise eyes. Her resemblance to Yukio was so strong that even Bon instantly knew who she had to be.

Yuri gave Rin a sad look. “You’re mistaken,” she said. “You have no friends within the True Cross. Come over here Rin-sweetie, with your family. It’s where you truly belong.”

Bon left Karura standing guard over Angel and went to stand beside Rin. Gratefully Rin put his hand on Bon’s shoulder. “Mom, these are my friends,” he said.

“The Paladin has orders to kill you,” Yuri countered.

Bon glanced back at Angel, shocked. Rin just shrugged, “Yeah, I guessed as much the third time he yelled at me for saving his life. But that’s for him and me to work out, there’s no way I’m gonna say Iblis’ promise doesn’t apply to him.”


	10. Friendship

Trapped alone in his memories Angel tried to fight his way back to the present.

_“I heard the shower running three times last night,” Lightning commented as he and Angel fixed their breakfast._

_Angel grimaced. “Did you happen to overhear Mother’s weekly call as well?” he asked._

_“Naw, can’t stand the old bat’s screeching.”_

_“Mother isn’t so bad, if she’d just admit you don’t have enough demon-blood to count.”_

_“But if that’s what it takes to find out what’s bugging you…” Lightning suggested._

_“She wants me to get married and produce an heir before I get myself killed,” Angel said. “She’s even found the girl. I’m certain Mother mentioned her name sometime during the call, but it didn’t stick.”_

_Lightning finished scrambling the eggs and split them between two plates while Angel sliced up some fruit and made toast._

_“Mother picked this girl, there’s no chance she hasn’t been thoroughly vetted. Impeccable family, appropriate skills, not even a vague possibility…” Angel trailed off without saying, ‘that she’s another succubus like Daphne was.’_

_Lightning watched Angel poke at his food without actually eating any of it. “The Academy cut Sally’s stipend again,” he remarked after several minutes passed without Angel adding anything on the subject of marriage._

_“What?” Angel exclaimed. “She can barely pay the rent on that atrocious apartment as it is. Beyond that, both my Japanese and Latin are excellent now, even my German’s becoming passable. She won’t let me hire her as a language tutor for much longer.”_

_“And the Academy refused to hire her on as a sparring instructor again this year,” Lightning remarked. “They don’t want to expel her for being afraid of demons, not when cutting back her stipend will get rid of her with much less fuss.”_

_“Do you think we could convince her to tutor me in Japanese history?” Angel asked. “It might be valuable to know. The Tokyo division of the True Cross has been gaining importance since merging with the Myodha two years ago.”_

_“Or you could propose to her,” Lightning suggested._

_Angel glared at him._

_“She’s your friend. You like spending time with her and you trust her,” Lightning pointed out. “She’s not some ‘suitable’ girl your mother picked out whom you’ve never met and who- who won’t care!”_

_“It would be for the best,” Angel said._

_Lightning sighed. “I checked Sally out when she stopped being just your student. Her story’s perfectly true and she’s got fewer ties to Gehenna than you do. I even checked out that kid of hers, lazy little shit but when his grandparents manage to motivate him he’s got the makings of a Knight-prodigy, Sally’s athletic ability is probably somewhat genetic... And the kid’s a Tamer, so her problem with demons isn’t.”_

_“You’ve put a disturbing amount of time and thought into pairing me off with her,” Angel said. “I wouldn’t be any good for her.”_

_“Tell me one thing: Does your skin crawl at the thought of being married to Sally?” Lightning asked. He took Angel’s expression as a negative. “Your mother’s not going to let up until you’ve got a kid and we’re going to run out of ideas for keeping Sally from starving without offending her pride. So marry her, it would solve both of your problems.”_

_“Until I die and Mother throws her out,” Angel pointed out._

_Lightning grimaced, “First, try not dying. Second get an airtight will drafted to just to be safe.”_

_“It’s a terrible idea,” Angel protested._

_Lightning shrugged, “People get married for worse all the time.”_

* * *

_Several weeks later Angel and Lightning met Sachiko for lunch as had become their habit._

_Sachiko watched Angel stabbing his food with more intent to mutilate than eat then turned to Lightning and asked, “Have you sussed out what’s bothering him yet or should I try asking this time?”_

_Angel dropped his fork. “It’s nothing you need worry about,” he said eyeing Lightning nervously._

_“No, no, I think having a female opinion on the matter could only help,” Lightning declared._

_“I will murder you,” Angel threatened._

_Lightning cheerfully ignored him, “You see Sally, Arthur’s family is the old fashion type. Since he hasn’t found himself a wife by the ripe old age of twenty-one, his mother’s busily arranging a marriage for him.”_

_“You object to the girl?” Sachiko asked._

_“How could I?” Angel replied. “I’ve never met her. I really should admit to Mother that I was so surprised by the news that she’d arranged a match that I missed hearing the girl’s name.”_

_“You should have an omiai- um, a meeting, to see if the two of you think it could work out,” Sachiko advised._

_“Arthur doesn’t think he’s a particular good prospect, if the girl is looking at his personal qualities rather than his family,” Lightning interjected helpfully._

_“You’re far from the only man with a career that would keep him away from home,” Sachiko said turning to Angel with a frown. “You’re certainly pleasing to look at and you shouldn’t pay any attention to those silly children who think that following rules makes a person dull,” she scolded._

_“So you wouldn’t-” Lightning started to ask only to be cut off when Angel shoved the table into his chest with enough force to knock the air out of him._

_“It’s not that,” Angel mumbled._

_Sachiko glanced between Lightning and Angel, “I know there isn’t anything to the rumors about something between the two of you...”_

_“If I weren’t obligated to produce an heir I’d gladly join a monastery and swear off sex altogether,” Angel grumbled. “I don’t want to get married and I don’t want children but it’s not as if I have a choice in the matter,” he glared over his over his shoulder at Caliburn._

_“You could concede the bet, surrender your soul and those of your predecessors to me,” Caliburn offered. “I doubt any of your descendents will surpass you, perhaps because you made me wait for so long to taste you.”_

_“Why do you have to talk?” Angel asked Caliburn irritably. “You’re both the reason I have to marry and the reason it will never work out.”_

_“Left to their own devices Arthur and his mother would pick someone more interested in being his widow than his wife,” Lightning explained flatly. “Which is why, as his friends, we should get involved.”_

_“What?” Sachiko exclaimed._

_Angel sighed. “Caliburn’s power is unlocked by sacrifice: hair, blood, life. He holds the souls of eighteen of my ancestors in trust, if I die without producing an heir or without finding a battle he can’t win their souls and mine are forfeit. And Caliburn will find another family to offer his deal to._

_“My mother hasn’t smiled since I was eleven...”_

* * *

_A small boy, not quite twelve years old, peered nervously into the darkened foyer which was dominated by a polished black coffin. Light from the hallway illuminated the boy’s golden hair as he glanced over his shoulder. Seeing that he was unobserved he crept up the aisle formed by rows of folding chairs standing ready for the funeral to come on the following morning._

_The coffin was placed on the raised landing at the front of the foyer, the main doors barred until the funeral was complete and the pallbearers had escorted the dead to his final resting place. The boy wavered at the foot of the stairs for a moment then continued on. He went up on tiptoes, his small hands grasping the edge of the open coffin to stabilize himself and peered inside._

_The man looked composed, his hands crossed over the hilt of a massive sword that vanished beneath the lower lid of the coffin. But his hands were wrapped in red silk and the boy knew the cloth covered a welter of cuts, culminating in the ones that had taken his life. His hair, a shade darker gold than the boy’s, was cropped so short his scalp could be seen. Four days ago, when the man had taken his leave from his family, his hair had almost touched the floor. The boy reached over his shoulder to tug on the long plait that already reached his waist._

_“You’ve never cut it,” a disembodied voice said in covetous tone. “All your life you’ve been preparing yourself for me. Little Angel, have you come to see your future? Are you my next?”_

_The boy jerked back from the coffin in alarm._

_“Don’t be afraid,” the voice said soothingly. “I’ll never take what you don’t willingly give. I am patient. Why shouldn’t I be? Your father, his father and his father’s father all fed me well and in time they all gave me their lives. You will as well, I have no reason to hurry.”_

_“Caliburn,” the boy said acknowledging the demon sword with wary caution. “I will be the next to inherit you, but I won’t use you. I’ll depend on my own strength, not yours.”_

_“The choice is always yours my sweetest little Angel,” Caliburn replied calmingly. “The choice is always yours. I offer you glory and power beyond your dreams. I give of myself unstintingly and ask so little in exchange, just a small taste of you, a lock of hair, a drop of blood. You needn’t feed me your life’s blood any time soon. I was almost convinced that I would lose your great great great grandfather to old age, he was fifty-four before he found a battle he would trade his life to win. As with your forebears I swear to you, with me in your hand, with your life’s blood on my blade, you will win the battle you choose as your final battle. Not even the famed Excalibur could offer such an oath.”_

_“I don’t need you,” the boy reiterated. “The Grigori says we’re not going to rely on demons to fight demons anymore.”_

_“Whatever you choose, little Angel,” Caliburn replied and the boy decided to ignore the laughter underlying sword’s voice._

_Two days later Arthur Auguste Angel stood on the same raised landing in the main foyer of his family’s ancestral hall where his father’s coffin had stood and formally received custody of the demon-sword Caliburn which his ancestors had tamed for Assiah’s defense._

* * *

_Several weeks after the subject of Angel’s engagement first came up Sachiko set a folder on top of the mission report Angel was working on. “I took the liberty of contacting your mother about your prospective fiancee,” she said._

_Angel huffed in irritation, “If I’m too busy to think about that you two should certainly have better things to do.”_

_Lightning, sitting on the window sill with a book propped up on his knee, pretended that he hadn’t heard._

_“It would be courteous to show a bit of interest in this woman as you plan to marry her,” Sachiko overrode Angel’s protest. She flipped open the folder to reveal a picture of a woman with short dark hair and large dark eyes staring grimly at the camera. “Although, I have to say, she does look a bit sour.”_

_Reluctantly Angel picked up the photograph._

_“Her name is Victoria Blackwood,” Sachiko began. “Like you, she’s from a long established exorcist family. She received her masho in a traditional ceremony for her family when she was nine and graduated from the True Cross Academy of London at sixteen with dual Meisters: Knight and Dragoon. Her preferred weapon was a rapier.” Sachiko’s nose wrinkled in distaste at the other woman’s choice of swords. “She also has a proven aptitude as a Tamer with a hereditary affinity for the Kingdom of Decay but she has never applied for the Meister.”_

_“She had three older brothers, an Aria-Tamer and two Knight-Tamers,” Lightning interjected without looking up from his book. “All three died on missions for the True Cross. The family blamed their familiars but the missions where they died, well, I won’t call them suicide missions but they didn’t send the right people to survive them.”_

_“Sometimes the right people aren’t available when the mission has to be done,” Angel said._

_“Her parents both died on the Blue Night,” Sachiko resumed, her voice soft. “Later that year her team was ambushed. She survived but suffered injuries that left her right side weak, both her arm and leg were affected. She was forced to retire from active duty. She’s served the True Cross in an administrative capacity ever since. She’s twenty-eight, that’s a bit old for you, but I suppose you’ll have children immediately…” Sachiko trailed off with a wistful expression on her face._

_“Something wrong?” Lighting inquired, setting his book aside._

_“It’s nothing,” Sachiko replied too quickly, drawing Angel’s attention. She sighed. “Renzo just turned seven. I still picture him as my little baby but he’s already in school.”_

_“Arthur’s mother wouldn’t consider their age difference relevant,” Lighting contributed. “She’s resigned herself to him dying within the decade.”_

_“It’s a reasonable assumption,” Angel said defensively. “Almost all of Caliburn’s wielders have died in their twenties. I’ve been aware of that fact since I was a child. I remember we held a huge celebration when my father turned thirty, he’d beaten the odds. It seemed like a cruel joke when we buried him not two years later.”_

_In the awkward silence that followed Sachiko neatened the pages in the file. Lightning made no pretense of doing anything other than waiting for the conversation to resume. “On paper she seems like a good match for you. You should keep an open mind when you meet her,” Sachiko said. She glanced at Lightning, “Just because your mother suggested her doesn’t make it a bad match.”_

_“She was hospitalized twice after being pulled from active duty, tried performing off the books exorcisms on her own recognizance,” Lightning stated, an edge to his voice. “Ought to keep that in mind if you’re planning on her ending up a single parent.”_

_“I’ve made arrangements with your mother for you to meet Ms. Blackwood next week, we have permission from the Academy to use that Key/Gate thing for the trip,” Sachiko said._

_“We?” Angel asked._

_“How else can I be sure that you’ll attend?” Sachiko replied innocently. “And Lewin is just naturally nosy.”_

* * *

_Sachiko marched angrily out of the omiai tugging Angel after her. Lightning sauntered along behind them. “I can’t believe that woman,” she declared. “All she wanted to talk about was Caliburn.”_

_“I am a fascinating subject,” the sword said. Angel rolled his eyes._

_“Shut up!” Sachiko snapped. She stopped long enough to turn around and face Angel. “You can’t marry her. Any child you might have with her would be nothing more than a means for her to get Caliburn’s power.”_

_“I know.”_

_“I wouldn’t it past her to poison Arthur as soon as their child was old enough to wield a sword,” Lightning contributed helpfully._

_“Lewin Light, just because you were right, it’s no reason to be acting smug,” Sachiko said with a scowl. “We still have to deal with this mess.” She turned back to Angel, “Your mother wasn’t even bothered by how that woman was acting.”_

_“I imagine she wishes she could view Arthur so coldly,” Lightning said. He turned to Angel. “You know she never got over your father’s death.”_

_Angel had been about to protest but he sighed instead. “I realize that you two don’t like it, but I’ve accepted that I won’t have a long life. Mother’s only acknowledging the truth.”_

_“I do understand,” Light said. “Neither you nor your mother want anyone else to be hurt the way you were. I know you tried not using Caliburn, tried putting off the problem for some other generation to solve and that didn’t work thanks to my lovely mother. I know your mother thinks that she’s found a means of containing the damage. I’d even sympathize with her if her solution wasn’t to sacrifice you.”_

_“I’m already past saving,” Angel argued. “Mother’s just being realistic.”_

_“You’re not dead yet!” Lightning snapped._

_Angel started to argue but Sachiko cut him off, squeezing his arm. “It’s not just you, Arthur,” Sachiko said. “If you have a child with someone like that your child will suffer too, and their child after them.”_

_Angel’s shoulders slumped. “What do you propose I do instead?” He frowned at Lightning, “Don’t you answer. I already know what you think.”_

_Sachiko bit on her lower lip for a moment then said. “Promise me that you’ll do your best not to get killed any time soon and I’ll marry you. And Lewin, I’ve already told you to stop looking smug.”_

_“You didn’t even look,” Lighting remarked._

_“I didn’t need to,” Sachiko replied._

_“Why?” Angel asked._

_“I like you and.... you’re planning on having a child. I miss my son, Arthur. I’d like another chance to be a mother, to see my child’s first steps, to hear his first words, to see him leave for school for the first time.”_

_“Sachiko, I’ve already sold my soul. The only way I can win it back is to find a battle that Caliburn can’t win. If I fail our first born son will inherit Caliburn and the abbreviated life-expectancy that goes along with him. You’ve already lost one husband and a child, why would you risk marrying me? “_

_Determination filled Sachiko’s eyes. “Takezo died when he was twenty-one. Victory Blackwood’s three brothers all died before they reached twenty-five. In a night, thousands of exorcists all over the world died. And even if I leave the world of demons and exorcists behind there are still illnesses, accidents, earthquakes, typhoons. There is no certainty in life, no path that provides a guarantee against suffering. If you build your life around attempting to escape pain, the fear of uncertainty will become it’s own form of suffering. If I live only to avoid pain, I may as well give up on life altogether. If you can’t promise me that you won’t seek death, then promise that you won’t sell your life cheaply.”_

_“You could always marry Lighting,” Angel argued. “You’re as close to him as to me.”_

_“First Lewin isn’t looking to get married or have children. Second he isn’t thinking about marrying someone who would take our friend from us or at the least hurt him,” Sachiko replied. “You’re determined to marry someone, love plays no role in your decision and I don’t think I’m strong enough to trust love a second time, but at least together we’d be married to someone we like.”_

_Harold Tiberius Angel was born slightly less than a year later._

Angel blinked slowly, trying not to give away that he’d awoken until he could take stock of the situation.

* * *

“Rin,” Yuri said seriously. “I know you’ve been raised to think that demons are evil, I was put through the same brainwashing when I young. I know that’s why you think it’s okay that the humans treat you the awful way that they do, but it’s not okay. Come home to your father and I. We’re your family, we love you. We’ll show you that priest was a liar, there is nothing wrong with you.”

Rin gave his mother’s shade a look of betrayal. “Satan killed my dad. I’ll never forgive him for that,” he declared.

Yuri’s chin raised stubbornly, to Bon her mannerisms were startlingly reminiscent of Rin’s. “And Fujimoto Shiro killed my friends to force me to go back to the Vatican with him. He delivered me to my execution. I’m glad his guilt kept him from murdering you too, but he got what he deserved. It should have been me in your childhood memories, not him. I should have gotten to hold you, to watch you grow up. I wouldn’t have raised your brother to think his humanity puts him above you.”

Rin couldn’t say anything. He’d come to recognize that Shiro hadn’t been perfect, but he also understood that Shiro’s mistakes in raising him had been just that, mistakes and well intentioned ones at that. To hear his mother say that the man who’d loved him as a son had deserved to be murdered… Rin was beyond words.

“Lucky for Rin that you didn’t raise him,” Bon jumped into the gap. “What could you have taught him? To hide in a haunted forest and hate all humans? Rin’s better than that.”

Rin drew strength from Bon’s presence at his side. “I’m sorry Dad hurt your friends,” he said quietly. “But I know he tried to do the right things, even if he didn’t always succeed. He use to tell me I got my sense of justice from you, but Shiro’s the one who taught me to be forgiving. I wish someone had done the same for you.”

Yuri looked sad. “My poor baby, you only think that because you’re so tightly bound that you can’t even see how you’ve been enslaved, forced to betray your own kin. You don’t understand the insidiousness of the bonds. Even as they wrap you in chains they force you to love them.” Then she smiled tremulously. “But your father’s lent me the power to save you.” She joined hands with Iblis and his flames turned blue.

“Separate them!” Karura exclaimed.

Angel rolled to his feet, drawing and bloodying Caliburn in a single smooth movement. “Angel Slash!”

Iblis smirked and a horde of low level demons threw themselves into the path of Caliburn’s attack, spending their lives to shield Yuri and Iblis.

A whip of blue flame reached for Rin. Bon tried to strengthen their barrier but with Satan’s power flowing through Yuri and into Iblis’ attack his effort was for not. The blue lash wrapped around Rin’s neck and he screamed.

A tear trickled down the side of Yuri’s nose. “I know it hurts, baby,” she told Rin. “But it has to be done. Your father’s flames alone can’t break oath bonds, but they can burn away the lies and leave them revealed for the chains they truly are. It’s only when you see the truth that you will fight to be free.”

Rin struggled, he felt the flames Yuri controlled overwhelming his own to attack the bonds he’d forged over the last few years. As the emotions that filled them were stripped away the bonds he’d worn so easily became chains. Cold duty unrelieved by affection or desire. The weight of his chains drove Rin to his knees.

And then his memories rushed in to fill the void the flames had left behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Way back in “Walk me through the Valley” Spyro pointed out that I needed to clarify exactly how the Blue Flames could affect Oath Bonds. I’ve finally gotten back to that.


	11. Oaths Given

Rin reached up to grab the lash wrapped around his throat. For a moment he tugged futilely at it then his eyes went blank and his hands fell to his sides.

“I’m not finished!” Angel growled. He twirled Caliburn around opening a thin cut on his side before slashing at the whip. The resultant backlash threw him back into the cliff-face they’d camped beside but Iblis’ whip was undamaged. 

Bon tried to form a barrier beneath the lash and pry it off Rin, but the Blue Flames Yuri had imbued it with cut through Bon’s barriers. “There’s nothing you can do,” she said. “You may be able to channel my son’s flames, but I have access to his father’s and I have Iblis’ support as well.” 

“What are you doing to him?” Bon demanded furiously. “How can you attack your son like this?”

Yuri’s eyes flashed. “How can you call yourself his friend while you hold his freedom hostage? You’re the one who’s forced me to this.”

“I’m careful with his oath!” Bon protested defensively.

* * *

On one level Rin was aware of the lash around his throat, of Bon and Angel fighting to free him. On another he was watching his memories of the last two years play out before him as if watching a movie. He hadn’t forgotten his past but he felt detached from it, an observer rather a participant.

_Glaring at Mephisto, blue flames burning high. “You promised!”_

_“I promised to consider not interfering,” Mephisto corrected. “A demon’s word is his bond, and I did consider it very carefully… then I decided I would be interfering. Your plan was, frankly, terrible.”_

_Staring at a holy water cristen in the door of a chapel, feeling like it was an impenetrable barrier because he wanted to plunge his hands, arms, head into it. His skin itched and he wanted to feel the taint of his demonic blood being burned away, but Mephisto had tricked him into promising not to touch it._

_Konekomaru’s hands, firm and sure on his back, “It was never the holy water that made you feel purified, it was always Yukio making you believe you’d earned the right to be cared for.”_

* * *

_“What, you want my word that I’m not going to go berserk and kill you?”_

_“A little less specific and include Sadao-kun,” Ueno requested. “He can be a moron but he’s my moron.”_

_“Fine! I, Okumura Rin, give my solemn word that I won’t attack Ueno Michi or Suzuki Sadao.” His nails digging into his own flesh. “Happy now?”_

_“Thank you,” Ueno replied. “That was… a lot more than I was expecting. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I can’t just trust you.”_

_It was worth nothing. She could have offered him something in return, a promise for a promise, but it never crossed her mind to deal fairly with a demon._

* * *

_“Hey, Okumura-kun,” Suzuki Sadao called. “You’re a year ahead of me, could you help me with my summer homework?”_

_“Yeah, sure. What class?”_

_“Promise?” Suzuki asked lightly._

_“Yeah, yeah,”_

_Suzuki dropped an Advanced Demon Pharmacology textbook on the table. “I gotta finish this chapter before Saturday to stay on schedule,” he said with a nasty smirk._

_The maddening itch as his oath drove him to do something he simply wasn’t capable of accomplishing. The hurt and disappointment when Ueno made Suzuki release him from the oath, not because it was a nasty thing to do to him but because she was afraid how he might retaliate._

* * *

_Sato Aiko standing on the platform at the train station surrounded by her bags and trunks. “Take care of yourself Rin. I’ll stay in touch.”_

_Unanswered emails. Silence ringing in his ears like tinnitus._

* * *

_“I, Okumura Rin, return to the Myodha what my chosen father stole from them. Along with the return of Kurikara I also pledge my service to Suguro Ryuji for so long as he lives as remuneration for the years that Kurikara was withheld from her true owners. Suguro Ryuji, I willingly and gladly swear to faithfully serve you to the best of my ability, to protect your interests in all things and to never cause you harm.”_

_A feeling of security and belonging filling him as the terms of the oath settled on him. A promise neither given nor accepted lightly anchoring him to Assiah, stitching closed the wounds his twin had inflicted. He wasn’t necessarily human but he was Bon’s, he had a place and a purpose in Assiah._

_The tearing horrible feeling when his Oath to Bon conflicted with the bond of love and loyalty he felt toward Izumo. Even if she wouldn’t let him make a formal Oath to her she was his girlfriend, the one he wanted to marry if only she’d agree. It didn’t have the mystical strength of a Demon Oath, yet, but it was no less real and true in his heart and mind._

* * *

Between them, Izumo and Bon had the power to rip him apart. Rin didn’t want to remember how often they’d made him feel like the rope in a game of tug of war but Yuri didn’t give him a choice.

_A few hours after the Exorcist Exam ended Izumo plopped down on Rin’s lap to watch while the Old Dorm’s lobby was transformed into a home theatre. Paku had taken charge. She had Konekomaru, Ueno and Godain hooking up wires while Bon, Suzuki and Ito hauled additional speaker system downstairs._

_“So,” Izumo said leaning back against Rin’s chest. “I maybe, kind of, might have offered the foxes rice treats in exchange for helping out with my Tamer Practical… and they might have said only if you’re cooking.”_

_“Her rice is like eating paste,” Uke commented, his tail waving lazily as he and Mike sprawled on one of the other couches in the lobby._

_Izumo reached down and pulled off her indoor slipper then chucked it at her familiar. “Shut up you,” she ordered._

_Uke flattened himself and the slipper sailed harmlessly over his head. Mike buried his snout in his paws to stifle his snickering._

_“Sure, no problem,” Rin said. “If you help we could try making some traditional mochi in addition to the basic rice.”_

_“The kin would like that,” Mike remarked. “Most of them have a sweet tooth.”_

_“And Izumo has to work, not just look cute,” Uke added._

_Izumo scowled at her familiar but actually took the comment as a backhanded apology for all the times the byakko had compared her to her mother and found her wanting._

_“I also might have said something about a liver dinner for Ryujin. Which ended up getting negotiated into a state dinner between the Fire Prince Rin and the Sea God Ryujin,” Izumo added. Then quickly, before Rin could get a word in, she continued, “It’s a good idea! Ucchusma’s block is too strong for Iblis to attack us casually but you are a Prince of Flames, you’re a threat he can’t ignore forever. Having allies in the Water Kingdom could really help when it comes to fighting him.”_

_“Sounds good,” Rin said._

_Izumo blinked at him. She’d been ready with a whole list of justifications and Rin’s easy acquiescence felt anticlimactic._

_“I mean I just don’t get the whole Kingdom thing,” Rin continued. “Egyn wants to kick Satan’s butt. So do I, why shouldn’t we get along? Iblis hates humans. Dad raised me better than to judge people on race.”_

_Overhearing them, Konekomaru looked up from what he was doing. “You have to remember Rin was raised in Assiah. Uke and Mike grew-up in Inari’s service, it would be all but unthinkable for them to turn their backs on that.” He shrugged, “But Rin doesn’t have any real ties to the Flame Kingdom even if he is classified as a part of it due to his powers.”_

_“So mochi first, state dinner later?” Rin asked._

* * *

_“You’re turning, I’m pounding,” Rin declared, laughing when a too-enthusiastic stroke almost overturned their bucket of mochi rice. Izumo surrendered the hammer and they traded places. Rin took over pounding the rice into dough while Izumi turned the dough to make sure it was evenly done._

_A number of the Kin had slipped into the Old Dorm’s kitchen and were perched on shelves, chairs and counters eagerly watching as their treat was prepared._

_Bon stuck his head in the door. “Out!” Rin and Izumo shouted before Bon’s much-hyped ‘kitchen-curse’ could take effect._

_“We were supposed to study,” Bon said glancing toward the clock._

_Rin froze. “Sorry, I-” he began agitatedly. Izumo glared daggers at Bon._

_“No worries,” Bon said quickly. “Go ahead and finish up. I just wanted to know when you were going to be done?”_

_“We’ll need another fifteen minutes to finish the dough then I can put it on hold ‘til tomorrow,” Rin said._

_The Kin began pouting exaggeratedly._

_“Ah come on guys,” Rin protested. “Homework’s important too. I’ve got to pass the Exam this year or everyone’ll leave me behind.”_

_“As long as that’s you talking, not Suguro,” Izumo said, still scowling at Bon._

* * *

“All of you use him,” Yuri accused. “All of you, from that priest onward-“ Her gaze lost its focus. “That priest, I thought he was different. He studied to be a Tamer with me when it was practically a death sentence to be a Tamer, he didn’t even have the aptitude. But they sent him after me… We weren’t hurting anyone! We just wanted to be left alone! I had to protect my friends. They burned me. My babies, I’m going to die before you’re born. I can’t die, not yet!”

A part of Bon looked at Yuri’s meandering dialogue and recognized a weakness in his enemy, another part raged at the Grigori, reminded by Yuri’s flashback of how close Rin had come to dying before he’d even been born. 

Iblis glanced down at Yuri with a grimace. “Wake up!” he demanded roughly and Yuri’s eyes regained focus.

“Fujimoto, God’s priest, twisted my sons against each other. Do you have any idea how perilously close Mephisto came to breaking his word to send Yukio away? But it had to be done to protect Rin from his brother.” And in this Bon had no answer for Yuri’s accusations. 

“It’s not the first time,” Yuri continued. “Satan told me, over and over again, God has made my children destroy each other…. I can almost remember, sometimes, other lives, grief for my children over and over again. The priest is gone but the damage he did remains, my sons can’t be together and they’ve both been twisted to hate their father. But we’ll make them better, we’ll be the family we never had the chance to be before.”

Bon eyes hardened, “The way I hear it, Satan did a damn good job of making Rin hate him all on his own. It’s you that’s trying to force him to change what he thinks.”

Yuri scowled. “Have you ever wondered what it was that Rin did to heal the Myo’o Dhari bonds of the taint that generations of lies and secrecy had tarnished them with?”

Behind Bon, Angel stirred weakly. Blood dripped from his side where his collision with the cliff had significantly widened the cut in his side as his hand tightened on Caliburn’s hilt.

* * *

_Rin watched anxiously while Itamae looked over his proposed menu and sampled the liver dish he’d chosen._

_“Much better, got over your fear of cooking liver too hot I see,” the chef said with a smile. “As for your menu, Flame-on-the-Iceberg is an excellent topper for your theme, very showy.”_

_“I’m presenting it myself. I’ve almost got it so I can use my flames to flambe without messing up the taste,” Rin said. “It wouldn’t go over with a room of Exorcists but for the Sea God I thought it’d be impressive.”_

_“Check with Sir Pheles if that’s appropriate before you spend too much time on it,” Itamae suggested. “And I’d choose a spicier soup to balance the cucumber salad, but otherwise very good.”_

_Rin flashed a quick grin that quickly faded back into nervousness. “I just hope everything goes okay. It just keeps getting bigger, Mephisto-ni got involved and Egyn got invited, so we’re having it in Delphi now. To start with it was me, Ucchusma and Karura representing our faction of the Fire Kingdom, Izumo and her familiars as mediators and Ryujin, the wani Izumo summoned and a couple of Ryujin’s other retainers for the Water Kingdom. Now Mephisto’s coming to help mediate and he’s got Gaia, Renzo, Echidna, Amaimon, Anubis, Egyn and Obizu coming and they’re all bringing, an um, a retinue. It’s turning into a-a summit for Hell Kings who might go against Satan. And I’m cooking dinner!”_

_“Remember, you’re only to cook for the head table. Ukobach and I will handle the rest, working from your menu of course.” Itamae reminded Rin. “This is meant as a friendly overture between you and the Kingdom of Water, but you have to be conscious of your station.”_

_“Yeah,” Rin said doubtfully. “Mephisto-ni said Bon and Konekomaru couldn’t come because I ‘have to be the Flame Prince Rin, not Surugo Ryuji’s knight.’ I don’t know how to be a prince!” he exploded. “I’m just the stupid, worthless twin. The demon who gets in fights all the time and can’t do anything right.”_

_“You’re not.” Itamae said, putting his hands on Rin’s shoulders. “I don’t know if it helps with the prince issue, but I am very proud to claim you as my apprentice and I know your knight-mentor feels the same.” Rin looked up tentatively. Itamae smiled. “Besides, how many aspiring chefs can say they catered a banquet for three kings and a goddess before turning eighteen?”_

_Rin smiled a little at that, “Yeah, if I just didn’t have to attend the banquet it would be totally cool.”_

_Itamae chuckled. “Remember, you have a goal at this conference. Show them that the animosity between kingdoms can be overcome, that you all share a common goal in defending Assiah.”_

* * *

_Izumo, after laying claim to Mephisto’s credit card, assumed responsibility to see Rin dressed appropriately for the dinner. Rin tolerated her playing dress up with him with good grace. After several hours of examining different fabrics she chose a dove grey kimono with a dark blue hakama and brighter blue kataginu that she claimed complimented Rin’s eyes._

_The night of the banquet Izumo wore the white and red of a Miko with a flowered shawl to dress it up. She had also invited enough of Inari in to have silver fox ears poking up through her dark hair. Mephisto smiled approvingly at the two of them when Rin consciously straightened up, standing tall as he took Izumo’s arm to escort her through the gate._

_The three of them arrived at the small building in Delphi Mephisto had claimed for a classroom a moment later. When the winter term started Mephisto had decided to move his negotiation class to Dephi and add Renzo to the roster in light of his new circumstances, even though Mephisto claimed that Renzo was already the best prepared of his five of students for Demon Oaths. Rin wasn’t sure who had been more offended by the comment, Amaimon or Izumo. For the night Itamae and Ukobach, aided by a dozen of Uke and Mike’s kin had taken over the building, turning it into a staging room for the banquet. Itamae waved to Rin as they passed through._

_“Before we go out,” Mephisto said putting a hand on Rin’s shoulder. “Do not unseal your heart, but pull your flames past the seal. Let them see the power you wield.”_

_Rin nodded and did as Mephisto asked. A shimmering blue cloak of flames formed around him._

_Mephisto tilted his head to the side and studied Rin for a moment. “You can manage a bit more,” he said._

_Rin sighed as he followed Mephisto’s instructions. His teeth sharpened and his ears lengthened, his flames coalesced into horns on his temples._

_They crossed a small courtyard then rounded a corner to enter the building where Gaia had signed her treaty with Greece a few months earlier. Rin recognized the doorman as one of the zombies rescued from the Illuminati, now a golem. “Samael, King of Entropy.” Mephisto stepped forward and stood framed in the doorway for a few moments. Rin’s jaw dropped as massive midnight wings unfurled from nowhere. He’d caught glimpses of Mephisto’s wings before but it had never really sunk in how huge they were. They spread from Mephisto’s shoulders, iridescent feathers of the darkest shades of purple, stretching to fill the entryway and then they simply kept spreading, passing through the walls and ceilings as if they weren’t there._

_Mephisto stepped aside to allow Rin and Izumo their entrance. Izumo used her elbow to nudge Rin. He tore his eyes away from Mephisto’s wings and entered the banquet hall with Izumo. “Okumura Rin, inheritor of the Blue Flames, Prince of the Fire Kingdom, escorting Kamiki Izumo, Miko of Inari, newly of the Earth Kingdom.”_

_“Your wings, people, walls,” Rin stammered somewhat incoherently as he and Izumo rejoined Mephisto after being announced._

_“Interesting,” Mephisto said. “You don’t sense my power when I allow my control to slip, but it seems you see something of my true form. Most everyone here tonight will be projecting their power. Nothing so uncouth as unsealing their heart but showing their power none-the-less. It helps establish the pecking order. Try not to be distracted by what you see. And remember, continue holding your power at the level I suggested.”_

_Rin glanced around the room. Ucchusma was conversing with a woman whose lower body was a snake’s. Amaimon and Egyn were glowering at each other from opposite corners of the banquet hall. Amaimon was wearing a less ragged version of his normal outfit and had the air of a young boy who’d been spruced-up entirely against his will. To Rin’s eyes Amaimon’s flesh seemed to flicker between different types of rock and clay. Egyn wore an elaborate 18th century admiral’s uniform, the details of which Rin couldn’t make out for the water swirling around him. Out of the corner of eye Rin saw a pair of dragons, one green and one irridescent blue, their heads bent close together, their bodies passing through the walls of the building. But when he turned and looked at them directly all he saw was a woman in a flowing green gown and a man in a Japanese naval uniform from the late 1800’s. Karura was cautiously speaking with a woman made of water. Like the other high ranking members of the Water Kingdom she wore a naval uniform. Rin wondered how it stayed dry when the body it clothed was pure water. Perun was there, having come from his grotto beneath Rome. As was Xihe, the mother of ten sun-birds and one of the most recent members of the Fire Kingdom to seek refuge from Iblis’ vendetta against Assiah with the Myodha. Mike and Uke’s kin wandered through the gathering offering cups of shrimp cocktail to the mingling guests._

_Rin allowed himself a minute to gawk before he and Izumo went to join the other guests. They’d only started to mingle when the room dimmed as a forest appeared, it shifted to a jungle then a savannah in rapid succession. The doors to the Hall swung open and Shiemi walked in on Renzo’s arm. She wore a simple white sheath that fell to her ankles, the material was thicker than was Gaia’s preference but left Shiemi’s shoulders bare. Ivy twined around her waist like a belt and flowers studded her hair like jems. Renzo wore a black tuxedo with pink accents. His hair was smoothed down to make his horns more notable. His eyes were solid obsidian. “The Lady Moriyama Shiemi, vessel of Gaia escorted by her knight, Renzo of the Black Flame.”_

_Gaia’s power, flowing freely from the Earth into Shiemi, filled the room with a tangible presence that silenced the crowd. After a few moments Mephisto swept into a florid bow and the other Hell Kings followed suit while the lesser demons knelt. Rin glanced around uncertainly, then decided he should bow as well. Shiemi blushed but Renzo squeezed her arm, steadying her. She took a deep breath and nodded graciously to the assembly. Mephisto met them as they reached the main floor and subtly guided Sheimi through the room to her seat at the center of the head table. Along the way they stopped and chatted briefly with a number of the guests. Rin grinned when his turn came. “It’s great seeing you, I thought it was going to be Gaia,” he said._

_“The banquet wasn’t during Gaia’s time,” Shiemi explained. “And we thought it would be good if word got out that her power is at my disposal even when Gaia’s residing in the Olompali.”_

_“And who’s idea was it for Renzo to escort you?” Izumo asked, her tone said she was remembering every perverted thing the pink-haired boy had ever done or said._

_Shiemi huffed exasperatedly. “Amaimon and Egyn got in a fight over which of them was going to be my escort. Neither of them even thought to ask me, so I asked Renzo. It really works out for the best, with all this fuss about rank Renzo wouldn’t have been able to sit with us if I hadn’t.”_

_Renzo shrugged. “It works for me,” he said._

_While Shiemi made her way across the room the Kin laid out place settings on the tables. Once she took her seat at the head table everyone else followed suit. As Shiemi’s escort Renzo sat at her left hand. Mephisto, as the highest rank Hell King sat at her right. Egyn sat on Mephisto’s other side while Amaimon sat on Renzo’s. After Amaimon, Rin and Izumo finished out the left side of the table while Ryujin and the Wani Izumo had made her deal with completed the right side._

_Once everyone was seated the Kin circulated around the room, serving a spicy tomato bisque._

_“How are the little ones coming along?” Mephisto asked Shiemi._

_She smiled, “Really well. Almost all of the babies have been placed with nice families. There are only a couple of the older children who are still non-verbal. With more and more of the children becoming ready for school the Golem are a huge help,” Shiemi said enthusiastically._

_“Yeah,” Renzo added. “The La Llorona were great when we just needed to round the kids up and get them out of that abattoir. But, well, most of them were around Shiemi and I’s age when they died as humans. Even though they’ve been demons for ages they don’t actually seem much older now. A lot of the Golem were grandparents before the Illuminati got them. They’re better at helping us figure out how to take care of the kids.”_

_“It is only to be expected,” Mephisto replied. “Humans are not designed for immortality. Gehennans, even myself, the King of Time cannot make them so without repercussions.”_

_“Like the spirits we rescued from the Phantom Train?” Shiemi asked. “They hadn’t even realized they’d died.”_

_“Precisely.” Mephisto turned to Renzo. “With those like the the La Llorona it is less obvious and, perhaps more insidious for that fact. They are aware of time passing but still they were trapped, forever more, in the moment when they became demons… Or at least they were until our Lady Gaia involved herself.”_

_“What do you mean?” Rin asked._

_“Her reward for their assistance in rescuing the children, it wasn’t exactly a typical merger,” Mephisto said. “The La Llorona were humans turned into demons. Gaia’s sleeping granddaughters were Gehennan-human hybrids. By merging them the La Llorona’s deadlock was broken but only time will tell which way it broke.” Mephisto grinned at the puzzled looks he garnered. “It’s unfortunate you didn’t cook a turkey dinner for us,” he said to Rin. “A wish-bone would be a useful prop right now.” He mimicked snapping one and held up one imaginary half then the other. “Human, Gehennan, impossible to predict which half will be dominant in the new being each of them has become.”_

_“Trapped in the moment they became demons,” Izumo repeated. “Will that be a problem for Rin? Or Renzo?”_

_“Or the Golem?” Shiemi asked urgently, her eyes darkening with worry._

_“Gaia has more than a bit of experience in crafting shells for human souls,” Mephisto assured Shiemi. “The Golem will last around a hundred years but they will age and eventually die as is natural for humans. I trust you’ll have more sense than to attempt to create new bodies to transfer them to after their original expires.” Then he turned to frown severely at Izumo. “Rin-kun never became a demon. He is exactly what he was born to be. As for Renzo-kun,” he shrugged, “it may be wise to keep an eye on him. It isn’t typical for the human personality to become dominant in a merger.”_

_Ryujin glanced up from the last sip of his soup. “A merger? I’d heard rumor that the Lady Gaia’s knight had become one of those demon-eater creatures.” The sea dragon frowned. “They captured one of my lieutenants last year.”_

_“You will have to tell me more,” Mephisto remarked. “Lucifer-ni was getting quite out of hand and I dislike leaving loose ends like his Illuminati running about.”_

_The spicy soup was replaced with a cucumber salad._

_“Humans are always misnaming things, even each-other.” Egyn said giving Izumo a disappointed look. “Always lumping things together. Ghosts, La Llorona and the like are born human then turn themselves into a soddy imitation of what we are.”_

_Izumo bowed her head at his reprimand. “Please enlighten me?” she requested._

_“Let me try,” Renzo said. “First there was the Eldest. He created Assiah and the angels, the first generation. A faction of the angels, lead by Satan rebelled. They went out and found human soulmates. Their kids, Samael here included, were the Nephilim: half-human, half-angel. Even though he was born much later, Rin-kun and his twin are technically Nephilim too. There aren’t many new Nephilim these days because, according to Lucifer anyways, Satan’s the only angel, fall or otherwise, left… And judging from you, Egyn, plus Amaimon, Iblis and Astaroth, Satan’d rather get busy with other Gehennans. I’m not sure where Azazel and Beelzebub come into play.”_

_“Hmm… I’d give you 80% credit for that answer,” Mephisto said. “You mentioned that fallen angels found soulmates, or more correctly they found human whom they created soulbonds with, and it doesn’t occur to you why my father doesn’t take human lovers more often? Beelzebub is a class unto himself and a bit disgusting, let us not discuss him over dinner. Azazel, like many of the third generation, is a quarter human. By the time the War of Angels began all of the Angels who followed Satan had lost their soulmates to the ravages of time. Some found lovers among the Nephilim in hopes of being spared the pain of loss again. Others, most particularly my father, chose their partners with an eye to the children that would be produced. The third generation didn’t prove more powerful than mine, despite having more Gehennan blood at birth, but as the ages passed keeping an eye on linage did allow compensation for a lack of age... Or did you think it was coincidence that Satan’s sons have divided all of inner Gehenna between them ever since Zeus and Hestia fell to Iblis during the Great Fire of Rome.”_

_“That’s the thing with Nero fiddling right?” Rin asked._

_“Quite right,” Mephisto replied. “History books are undecided as to whether Nero had the fire set or opportunistically used it to clear room for the building of his Golden Palace. But the fire destroyed both Zeus and Hestia’s strongholds and Nero’s advisor, Ofonius Tigellinus was host to Iblis. Oh how he laughed when he was made Prefect of the Vigiles, Chief Fireman of Rome.”_

_“Excuse me,” Izumo said getting up as the Kin cleared away the salad dishes and replaced them with a small dish of sorbet as a palate cleanser._

_Egyn glanced after Izumo, “What claim does she have that you fulfill her obligations?” he asked Rin._

_“I’m courting her,” Rin replied blushing fiercely._

_“Ahh,” Egyn said sympathetically. “Courting can be quite the challenge.”_

_“Not fighting over the girl like dogs over a bone might be a good place to start,” Shiemi said tartly. Rin blinked at her in surprise while Amaimon and Egyn both stared down at their plates guiltily._

_Mephisto laughed. “I see you’ve found a worthy prize to fight over,” he told his younger brothers. “But it appears that she will dictate the terms of your competition.”_

_“She’s my priestess,” Amaimon muttered sulkily under his breath. “Bastard-ni is just butting in.”_

_Izumo returned with Uke and Mike. One of the Kin proceeded them bearing a platter of calf liver and caramelized onions. Izumo bowed to Ryujin and then to the wani. “I thank you for the service you’ve done for me,” she said. “Please accept this offering as repayment.”_

_Ryujin inclined his head. “You have fulfilled your promise and in the process smoothed the path for better relations between those gathered here,” he said. “I accept your offering with pleasure.”_

_Izumo served Shiemi first. Then, while Uke and Mike served Mephisto and Amaimon, she served Egyn._

_“You’ve made this impossibly complicated!” Rin remembered her snapping at Mephisto a few days before. “I know Egyn outranks Ryujin, but do I serve Egyn or Amaimon first? I owe the Water Kingdom a boon but Amaimon is my king now.”_

_“You serve Gaia first,” Mephisto replied. “She is the Empress to our Kings. Then have your familiars serve Amaimon and I while you serve Egyn. The Earth Kingdom can hardly take offense if I don’t. After all, none would claim that either Egyn or Amaimon could be counted as my equal. Next serve Rin-kun, then Ryujin. Your Kin may begin general service at that point while you serve the Wani you offered the arrangement to and one of your familiars serves you.”_

_Konekomaru had looked surprised at that. “You’re saying Rin out-ranks the Sea God Ryujin?”_

_“As Izumo-chan pointed out, cross-Kingdom rankings are tricky,” Mephisto replied. “But Ryujin would never dream of challenging Egyn.”_

_“And I’m gonna have to go up against Iblis if he keeps attacking Assiah and the nicer Flame Demons,” Rin had concluded._

_After Izumo finished serving the Wani she returned to her seat._

_“This is quite excellent,” Ryujin said once he’d finished his liver._

_“Thanks,” Rin replied with a grin. “I’ve always loved cooking. If I hadn’t gotten tangled up in all this stuff with demons and exorcists I’d probably have wanted to become a professional chef.” To himself, Rin wondered if it ever would have occurred to him to lever his talent for cooking into a career a few years earlier. “‘Course if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have gone to the True Cross Academy and met my sensei or my friends.”_

_“I would not hesitate to hire a chef of your caliber,” Ryujin replied. “Although I’d have to worry about offending your father.”_

_Rin met Ryujin’s gaze steadily. “Satan killed the man who raised me as his son. If I have my way it won’t matter what he thinks much longer.”_

_“Now, now,” Mephisto said. “I think it is safe to say everyone here is tired of Satan’s tyranny and of his more obedient sons. But it isn’t good to speak openly of such things… Although we should reflect on the fates of Astaroth and Lucifer when contemplating the possibility of enacting change.”_

_While they talked the main course was cleared away then the lights were lowered. The Kin brought out plates of Ice Cream encased in a thick meringue. Once the desserts were distributed throughout the banquet hall Rin stood up. “I wasn’t raised in Gehenna,” he said. “I don’t get the animosity between the Kingdoms. Earth needs Water and Light to make it fertile. Fire is banked by Earth and fed by the Spirits of Air. Water can be purified by Fire or Earth. All these processes that we call life require Time. Together we’re not just strong, we’re amazing.”_

_Rin snapped his fingers and across the room blue flames ignited, flambeing the rum-drenched meringue For several moments Rin allowed the flames to burn. Then, at his gesture, they twisted together forming narrow columns rising up to the roof before collapsing in on themselves to nothing. “This is Flame-on-the-Iceberg, I think it’s pretty tasty,” Rin concluded. “So, um, Itadakimasu!”_

_After the dessert were mostly finished Ryujin stood, “I can hardly dispute the evidence before me that Fire and Water can compliment one another, on a menu at least. Whether or not our two Kingdoms can co-exist peaceably is more dubious. But,” he inclined his head in Rin’s direction. “There’s a better chance of it if the Flame Kingdom was yours. If your dispute with Iblis reaches the point of armed conflict you may call on my armies to aid you.”_


	12. Oath Broken

“Oath Bonds, when not carefully contained, become permeated with emotion,” Yuri informed Bon. “Sometimes it is accidental, sometimes it is built into the Oath directly: You will love me. You will hate my enemies. You will be LOYAL to me.”

“You’ll tell lies and breed distrust among your people?” Bon asked thinking of Karura’s bond with his father and the other head priests of the Myo’o Dhari before him. He glared at Iblis, “That was the bone they threw Iblis when all our familiars really wanted was an alliance against the Impure King.”

Iblis haughtily ignored him. Yuri shrugged, “For a human the emotions permeating a bond effect them unconsciously. An impulse to trust or to distrust that you can’t explain, a feel of danger or safety in the air. A human can choose to set aside their instinctual reaction to the feelings generated by an Oath Bond, a demon can’t. For a demon swearing to feel a thing makes the feeling real, inescapable. Satan’s eldest sons were abused horribly by humans who bound them before the Nephilim grew to understand Oath Bonds and learned to guard against them. The Blue Flames, stolen from God, are the only thing that can alter an Oath Bond and even after five billion years of practice Satan still can’t destroy a Bond.”

“Since the beginning Gehennans bound by a will not their own, forced to follow God’s commands. Satan and his followers learned to manipulate their chains, to pass them from their creator to a human of their choosing, someone they trusted above all others. But in doing so the vulnerability became seared into their genes, their children were born free of any master but encumbered with means to be chained and no one knew the danger until it was too late. Satan learned to use the Blue Flames to cleanse the bonds of emotion, to allow his sons and all of their generation to clearly see the chains they’d been saddled with. Rin cleansed the Myo’o Dhari Bonds of emotions you complain of. He gave your people a chance to evaluate the Bonds objectively without the weight of past mistrust. Now I’m returning the favor and giving Rin the chance to see the Bonds you’ve put on him without any love or loyalty that you may have commanded him to feel,” Yuri said.

“I don’t believe you,” Bon said flatly. “What Rin did felt good, you’re hurting him.”

“You’re human and Rin only polished the tarnish off the Myo’o Dhari Bonds,” Yuri said. “The Bonds are more powerful for Rin and so I want him to take a much closer look at the chains binding him.”

“You know why I don’t buy it?” Bon continued trying not to even think about Angel slowly pulling himself back to his feet behind him. “Because I saw what you did to Angel; you’re a mare, you read minds. So you know we didn’t use Oaths to force Rin to feel anything. If you’re just showing Rin his memories nothing is going to change. Our friendship is REAL. Rin’s loyalty to Assiah is REAL. You’re the one trying to make Rin into something he’s not, not me.”

“I didn’t have the time to delve into Rin’s memories too deeply. I wasted my chance to give the new Paladin a chance to show me that he wouldn’t murder my son,” she glared hatefully at Angel but dismissed the Paladin as a threat when she saw he was bleeding heavily and was only staying on his feet by leaning on his sword. “But I saw enough in the Paladin’s memories. The Grigori is no less hateful now then they were when my father had me burned at the stake. I’m willing to gamble that my son has no honestly earned loyalty to the organization that murdered me.”

“The Grigori isn’t all of humanity, or even all of the True Cross!” Bon snapped.

“No one protested when they tried to murder me and my unborn children,” Yuri pointed out. “All they did was villainize my lover for saving us.”

* * *

Rin felt his memories of the banquet settling back into place. 

The Ifrit had had let slip that a rescue was coming, Rin wondered if anyone had thought to alert Ryujin or if the Myo’o Dhari familiars had struck out on their own when he and Bon went missing in Gehenna. He wondered if Ryujin would just feel that the conditions of his Oath had been met. ‘Have to remember to ask Mephisto-ni how Ryujin’s Oath’ll work if he doesn’t know to come and how I manage it.’ And that thought triggered another wave of memories.

_Rin dashed across the cleared main lobby of the old dorm, his bare feet soundless on the hardwood floor. He stopped abruptly and Yips’ jet of water shot harmlessly past his nose. He twisted and bunted a water balloon back to burst in Ito’s face with the shinai he carried then braced to block Izumo’s naginata. Mike and Uke leapt at Rin while Izumo had his sword engaged. Rin grinned and jumped back. The sudden lack of resistance made Izumo stumble into Uke’s path. Rin grabbed Mike by the scruff of his neck and tossed him on top of the other two._

_As soon as Uke and Mike were clear Godain had Yips spit another stream of water at Rin. This time Rin used a small burst of flame to evaporate the water before it reached him. Then he executed a forward rolled to duck under another of Ito’s water balloons. “No fair!” Rin exclaimed. “You were out!”_

_“Even if this wasn’t tapwater pretending to be Holy Water it still wouldn’t do more than get me wet,” Ito argued and Rin glared at him._

_But Mike and Uke had untangled themselves and were back in the fray. The Exwires fell back while Rin and the two byakko tangled at speeds their eyes could barely track. Mike and Uke quickly realized that despite their own great speed, they couldn’t outrace Rin and switched to harassing him on multiple fronts. Rin used his shinai and sometimes his feet to keep them at bay._

_Mana stood at the back of the room searching for a verse that would weaken Rin. Mephisto had reassured the Exwires that Rin didn’t have a fatal verse as he’d been born into his body and thus couldn’t be exorcised. So they’d made it the object of the spar for Mana to try to find a verse that would weaken him before Rin managed to tag her out. Ito, Godain with Yips and Izumo with Mike and Uke were defending Mana while she searched._

_Rin brought the hilt of his shinai down on the top of Uke’s skull, stunning the Byakko. One-on-one he soon eliminated Mike as well. Izumo confronted Rin next. She tried to make use of the naginata’s greater reach to keep Rin at bay but he dove under her blade and rolled. He came to his feet well inside her guard and gave Izumo a quick kiss on the nose. “You’re out,” he said, not liking the thought of hitting his girlfriend even in a spar._

_Izumo smiled lopsidedly and dropped where she stood. Rin caught her as she fell and tossed her to Ito. The surprised dragoon dropped his sling-shot to catch her. “Okumura Rin, you are in so much trouble!” Izumo shouted. Uke and Mike snickered but remained on the sidelines, with their Tamer theoretically ‘dead’ they were out of the fight._

_Rin barreled into Godain, ramming his shoulder into the taller boy’s stomach and snatched his summoning circle out of his hand as he crumpled. Yips sighed apologetically and joined the byakko on the sidelines. Godain tried valiantly to recover enough breath to stand but Rin was already past him. Mana dropped her offensive efforts in favor of throwing up a hasty barrier. Rin spun and slammed his elbow into the translucent wall. It bowed then popped like a balloon._

_“Oh man Okumura-kun, what the hell do you and the Paladin do in your spare time?” Ito exclaimed as he set Izumo back on her feet. “That was seven on one and you trashed us with barely a trickle of your flames.”_

_Rin shrugged. “We’ve been doing a lot of two on two with Bon and Lightning lately. The last couple of weeks he’s even let me pair with Bon again. I guess we must be improving,” because Rin knew trading partners was Angel and Lightning handicapping themselves to get a better spar. At first it hadn’t worked, Rin hadn’t been able make himself fight to win against Bon. Which had led to the other three had sitting him down and talking at him for hours about why he should. Talking didn’t make it sink in half as well as watching Angel and Lightning spar against each other. The two Adepts ruthlessly exploited each other’s weaknesses until they’d been trained out of it then they moved on to the next weakness. After that Rin discovered he could compete against Bon without hesitation again. Bon might not like losing but victories he hadn’t earned weren’t good for him._

_Izumo rapped Rin lightly on the head as she walked over and sat on the stairs. “Outside of the two girls from the Myo’o Dhari, does anyone know anything about the new Page class?” she asked. She wrinkled her nose. “My guess is that they’ll be moving in here in a couple of months.”_

_“The class is huge,” Mana volunteered as the others joined Izumo lounging on the stairs. “In addition to the Myo’o Dhari there are two other first years from exorcist families, exchange students from Germany. And there are six second years with Mashos who Sir Pheles extended an invitation to.”_

_Rin took the step below Izumo and leaned back against her legs._

_“Sir Pheles liked what Okumura-kun and Suguro-senpai did last year, making contact with us,” Ito commented. “So he had us do the same thing. One of the girls with a masho is a real looker. The other one I can’t tell, she never looks up from her shoes. The guys seem okay enough to share a dorm with, no worse than Suzuki and Maki anyway.”_

_Mana sighed and shook her head at Ito’s description of the new girls. Izumo thumped Rin again for taking the junior class’ pervert out of the spar by getting him to catch her._

_Rin rubbed his head theatrically and gave her a wounded look. “There’s an older guy too,” he remarked. “Like in his thirties. Mephisto-ni is going to have him teach PE since he can’t really give him a scholarship at the Academy. He got a Masho a couple of years back and finally got tired of talking to shrinks about the stuff he saw and went to a priest instead. They put him in contact with us.”_

_“Just what we need around here, another chaperone,” Ito complained._

_Yips whispered something to Godain and the dark haired boy covered his mouth to keep from laughing._

_“What?” Ito demanded._

_“Yips just wonders why someone who can’t get a girl to do anything but slap him cares about chaperones,” Mike volunteered._

_“See if I ever let you mooch my sardines again,” Ito groused at the little bunyip._

_Rin leaned his head back into Izumo’s lap glance over at Mana. “Have you heard anything from Aiko-chan since she switched schools?” he asked, far from the first time._

_Mana flinched. “Why do you keep asking that?” she demanded._

_“She said she’d stay in touch, but I never hear anything from her,” Rin said with a frown._

_“No, Aiko hasn’t contacted me,” Mana snapped. “She was my best friend, my life-line when I started seeing demons. Then she left and never looked back. Why do you keep asking? Why can’t you just let me forget her like she forgot all of us?”_

* * *

_Mephisto tilted his head to one side then the other, studying Rin a few days after the spar. “She broke a promise to you,” he diagnosed._

_“Aiko-chan said she’d stay in touch, nobody ever means that,” Rin said bitterly. “I should just forget about her. She wasn’t really my friend.”_

_“You should do something about it,” Mephisto disagreed. “She made a **promise** , to you. And she **broke** it.”_

_Rin heaved a deep sigh. “It’s a demon thing. Why couldn’t I just be normal?”_

_“Why would you want to be?” Mephisto replied carelessly. “You’ll never wonder if someone is betraying you. I’d suggest extracting retribution sooner rather than later, before it festers.”_

_“I’m not going to do anything to her for just not answering my emails,” Rin protested._

_“Oh you will,” Mephisto said darkly. “It’s up to you what you take as your forfeit though.”_

* * *

_A few weeks later Rin and Amaimon sprawled on the lowest tier of the amphitheatre in Delphi, soaking in the sun and letting their bodies heal after several hours of enthusiastic sparing._

_“What would you do if someone broke a promise to you?” Rin asked._

_Amaimon shrugged. “If they hadn’t set a forfeit ahead of time? Kill ‘em I guess. I don’t buy into that stuff about there being too many humans so we should destroy their souls whenever we can.”_

_“I mean a little promise,” Rin clarified._

_Amaimon wrinkled his nose. “Little brother, don’t talk like a human. They call their promises little, unimportant things when they don’t feel like keeping them. Demons don’t have a choice, there are no little promises.”_

_“Can’t I just ignore it, I mean I didn’t make the promise.”_

_“Take the oathbreaker’s eye or their lying tongue then it won’t bug you anymore,” Amaimon advised._

_“Yes it would!” Rin exclaimed._

_Amaimon rolled his eyes._

_“What if she had a good reason? Maybe her computer broke… and her phone,” Rin suggested. “Maybe she’s hurt or, or kidnapped or something. I should go check on her.”_

_“Yeah, why don’t you do that,” Amaimon smirked._

* * *

_Once the idea that Aiko hadn’t kept her promise because something had happened to her entered Rin’s mind it took root. He found himself picturing her hurt or in trouble more and more often. His distraction didn’t go unnoticed by his friends but Rin couldn’t bring himself to tell them what he was worrying about. He knew they’d just tell him that he was being ridiculous. People promise to stay in touch then forget to write all the time, there was nothing mysterious or sinister about it but the more Rin dwelt on it the more certain he was that something bad must have happened._

_With that thought fixed in his mind, it wasn’t hard for him to gate to Tarako-san’s Ryokan early one morning and, from there, to slip off to Kyoto unnoticed. From Kyoto he caught a train to Shirakawa. The school Aiko had transferred to was a few miles from the train station. Rin arrived at the gates just after dawn but that was as far as his planning had gone. He hopped up on top of the school’s gate and waited for inspiration to strike._

_As his thoughts began to wander Rin felt a subtle pull. Without really thinking about it he followed the sensation and a short while later found himself watching Aiko as she ate breakfast and chatted with her friends through the window of the school cafeteria. Rin followed her superstitiously as she went about her day. He watched her as she sat in class and when she trained to be a shrine maiden. He watched her undertake her duties as her class representative with confidence only to go shy and bashful when in the presence of the school’s student body treasurer. When Aiko started back toward her dorm after dinner Rin step out of the shadows just before she reached the door. “Okumura-kun,” Aiko blinked at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?”_

_At the sound of her voice after nearly a year of silence Rin felt something snap in his head. “I wrote to you, you never wrote back,” he said his voice tight._

_“I was busy, settling into a new school,” Aiko replied defensively._

_“You didn’t write Mana-chan either,” Rin continued his fists clenched, claws digging into his palm. “You hurt her feelings.”_

_“I just didn’t know what to say,” Unconsciously Aiko took a step backward._

_Rin narrowed the gap between them. “You promised to stay in touch,” he accused. “Then you forgot about us!”_

_“Look, I’m sorry, but why are you making such a big deal out of it?” Aiko demanded. “You didn’t come all this way to yell at me because I didn’t answer a few emails?”_

_“You promised me!” Rin snapped and his flames burst past the seal._

_Aiko gasped as comprehension dawned. “I didn’t realize- I never thought of it as a Demon Oath,” she said quickly, nervously. “It’s just something you say when you leave someplace. I wasn’t thinking about you being half-Gehennan, I didn’t even know that Oaths applied to you.”_

_“I worried about you! I made myself believe something had happened to you,” Rin nearly growled. His tail lashed angrily as flames coalesced into horns on his temples. “That you wouldn’t just break your promise.”_

_“I’m sorry,” Aiko cried. She tripped as she tried to backed away. Rin stalked after her and she scuttled backwards._

_“Rin, stop!”_

_Rin turned and Bon standing in the open doorway, behind the Aria he could see Mephisto’s office for a moment before the door closed._

_Aiko started crying._

_“That’s enough,” Bon said. “You scared the living daylights out of her, that’s enough compensation.”_

_Rin nodded mechanically, his flames quenched. At Bon’s command the itch of Aiko’s broke oath vanished allowing Rin to return to himself. “I- Sorry, I don’t know what-” He reached down to offer Aiko a hand up and she flinched away from him. For a moment their eyes met then Rin fled from the terror he saw in Aiko’s gaze._

_He raced across the campus. Throwing himself over the wall that marked the edge of the school’s grounds Rin reflexively transformed himself into flames and sped across the country side putting miles between them in seconds. Without thinking about it Rin followed one of his more empyreal bonds and soon found himself standing in Izumo’s bedroom in Shimane. She woke with a start, reaching for one of her summoning papers before she recognized Rin and relaxed. “What are you doing here?” she asked sleepily._

_Rin knelt beside her bed clutching her hand. “Don’t ever betray me,” he murmured then he was stretching up, kissing her feverishly. Izumo tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer as she moaned into his mouth. Rin fumbled with the buttons on Izumo’s pajama top. His mouth slid down the column of her throat, urged on by Izumo’s soft gasps. His lips found her breast and she shrieked, her back aching._

_Rin got off the floor, pushing Izumo back onto her bed, climbing on top of her. All the while whispering against her skin, “Please, please don’t betray me. Don’t ever betray me.” He found himself hating their clothing as it was a barrier between them. Still things slowed as he found himself stymied, unable to choose between sliding off Izumo’s pajama bottoms or attacking his own clothes first._

_“Stop,” Izumo managed. Rin froze. She pushed him back until she could sit up then leaned forward, her forehead resting against his collarbone as her shoulders heaved. Rin remained paralyzed while Izumo tried to calm her body and regain her senses. “You said you wanted us to be sworn to each other first,” she reminded him after a few minutes._

_Gently Rin disentangled them. He got up and went across the hall to the bathroom then ducked his head under the tap. When that proved insufficient to clear his head he grabbed a quick and very cold shower. He returned to find Izumo had straightened her clothes and was sitting in the center of her bed, hugging her knees._

_“Thanks,” Rin said awkwardly. He stared at her elbow, the closest he could bring himself to making eye-contact._

_Izumo nodded shortly. “Why?” she asked._

_Rin’s gaze shifted to the foot of the bed. “Sato-san promised to stay in touch when she left. She didn’t mean it.” A look of understanding crossed Izumo’s face. “I tried to forget about it, act like a human-being. But I couldn’t. I got so mad. If Mephisto-ni hadn’t sent Bon...”_

_“Then you came here,” Izumo said, her voice tight._

_“Don’t ever betray me, please.” It slipped out before Rin could bite it back._

_“Why me? Why not Suguro, he’s the one who made you swear an Oath,” Izumo demanded._

_“Bon wouldn’t make a promise he didn’t mean to keep, besides he was there.”_

_Izumo flinched. “And because I won’t make a formal Oath with you, you think I will.”_

_“No!” Rin exclaimed, but it was a reflexive denial without any conviction behind it._

_“You can’t back out of promises!” Izumo exclaimed. “You still don’t get it? Even after what happened with Sato? Oaths twist you into something that you’re not. Situations change, people change, but the Oath will bind you to what was.”_

_“I won’t change my mind about loving you,” Rin declared stubbornly. “I shouldn’t have come here tonight but I don’t know how to make you believe me. I won’t stop loving you, ever.”_

_“If I hadn’t realized you were freaking out, didn’t know you’d have regretted it in the morning, I wouldn’t have stopped you,” Izumo said. “I know how we feel now but people change.”_

_Rin sighed. “I should go home. Can I borrow your key?”_

_“Stay?” Izumo asked shifting over to make space for him next to her on the bed. “Just to sleep?”_

* * *

_The next morning Hojo Nishiki glared at Rin and Izumo over the breakfast table, not ever Rin’s peace offering breakfast improved her mood. “I don’t care if you have a boyfriend, have the common courtesy to keep it quiet when he visits in the middle of the night,” the Myo’o Dhari girl complained to Izumo._

_Even though they hadn’t done more than sleep holding on to one another after their quarrel Rin and Izumo blushed beet-red. “Sorry we woke you,” Rin mumbled. “I just had to talk to Izumo right away.”_

_“Talk, yeah sure,” Nishiki groused._

_Despite Nishiki Rin spent the day lurking about Inari. The bustling tourist mecca had become a sleepy farming center but the looming Inari Dreamtown was gone, taking with it the desperation that had lain under the glittering facade of the old Inari. The new Inari was quiet, the last of the medical centers had only just packed up as they finished treating the lingering effects from the Illuminati’s drugs, and cautious, those who’d stayed had weathered a storm and weren’t truly sure it was safe yet, but there was hope now where there’d only been mania before._

_Rin spent that night with Izumo as well, but the next morning was Monday and they both had classes to attend, hiding wasn’t an option any longer. When Rin slipped downstairs from the girl’s floor after using Izumo’s key to gate back to Tokyo Bon was waiting for him at the door._

_“You’re okay,” Bon said his shoulder’s slumping with relief._

_“Sorry,” Rin replied staring at his feet._

_“Saturday, Mephisto grabs me. He takes a minute, if that, to explain what was going on and shoves me through the door,” Bon exclaimed. “Then you take off looking like you’re about to be sick and when I get back he says everything’s fine and not to worry myself about it.” Rin’s shoulders hunched. Bon sighed and wrapped an arm around him. “The one good thing about the Oath you gave me is I can use it to get you out of other Oaths. But you gotta tell me when you need help, okay?”_

_Rin glanced up and smiled tentatively. “Okay. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know. I didn’t think of you because she gave me an oath, I didn’t give her one. I didn’t think you could help with something like that.”_

_“I can try,” Bon said. “Our Oath isn’t supposed to be one-way you know.”_

* * *

_That night Mephisto sat down beside Rin on the roof of the Old Dorm. “In retrospect you can say that her promise was a little thing in the greater scheme of things,” he said. “But it had meaning for you… and it was the first Oath given to you that was broken.”_

_“Amaimon thought I should kill her,” Rin said. “When I got there and she’d just, just not cared enough to bother... I might have done it if Bon hadn’t stopped me.”_

_“Amaimon hasn’t lived among humans long,” Mephisto replied. Then he took on a scolding air, “I told you not to let it fester. Shiro and I had a standing date, ever since the second year he knew me. Sometimes circumstances, a certain son of his getting into fights for example, forced him to miss it. I usually demanded he drink a shot of Jagermeister as his forfeit.”_

_“I asked Dad why he kept that stuff when he hated it,” Rin said._

_Mephisto chuckled. “Exactly, a petty forfeit for a petty transgression. I must take something to preserve my own sanity, such as it is, but I can choose to tailor the punishment to fit the crime even if the one who gave the Oath wasn’t wary enough to demand it of me.”_

_Rin smiled in relief, he leaned back a bit and kicked his feet as they dangled over the edge of the roof, happy to learn that he wasn’t fully at the mercy of his demon heritage._

_Mephisto stared out at the horizon wistfully. “I don’t actually mind the monthly trips to his grave to berate him about failing to show up once again,” he said. “To be honest, when it’s him, I prefer the aggravation of a broken bond to the emptiness that comes when the one I made it with is completely beyond my reach.”_

_“His soul has lingered in Assiah for an unusually long time past his death. It’s a paradox, I want him to stay but I want him to go as well: I’m more than old enough to know it’s healthier and he can hardly hurry back if he refuses to leave properly.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week’s update is going to be a stand alone side story rather than a chapter in this story:
> 
> “Second Saturday” Preview:
> 
> “Wait,” Rin said. “Dad would have known better than to make an open-ended deal with a demon, even you.”
> 
> “Well, let’s just say…” (Mephisto/Shiro - E)


	13. Chafing Oaths

Rin remembered Sato-san’s broken Oath and his older brother’s notion of a learning experience. ‘At least Mephisto-ni had enough sense to send Bon to stop me.’ He remembered afterwards, Bon had stopped studying in their room and started sleeping in Kyoto, using the gateway in their shared dorm room to leave Tokyo after Rin had gone to bed and only returning for classes long after Rin was up and out in the mornings. He remembered:

_The clatter of cans being knocked over by the closet door openning woke Rin. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, “Something goin’ on?” he mumbled seeing Bon had opened the gate to Kyoto._

_“Council stuff, you’d be bored,” Bon replied. “Go back to sleep, I didn’t mean to wake you.”_

_Rin sighed disappointedly as he lay back down. His eyelids felt like they had weights attached. ‘Could have just said he didn’t want me to come,’ he thought as sleep claimed him._

* * *

_Later that summer Rin and Angel hiked out of the Academy’s forest looking tired, dirty and generally content with the world. Rin had progressed to the point where they were too hard on their surrounding even when Angel only wanted Rin to work on his sword technique rather than his powers._

_“I’m sending you and Suguro to San Francisco, Tamer-Adept Durov has requested your help,” Angel informed Rin. “You have forty-eight hours to prepare… Try to use some of the time to make arrangements with your other tutors for the next two weeks,” he added as he handed Rin a stack of tourist brochures._

_Rin started flipping through the stack, grinning broadly. The junior high trip to Kyoto that he’d missed felt a long time gone. “I’ll ask Itamae-sensei who he knows there, he knows people everywhere.”_

_When Rin stepped out of the Saints Peter and Paul Church two days later and spotted a lone circular tower atop a hill that looked out over the city his face lit up with excitement. “Coit Tower! We’re here! Can we go see the Golden Gate Bridge? I want clam chowder in a bread bowl. And- and- Do we have time to see Disney World?”_

_Bon rolled his eyes. “Disney World is in Floridge, the United State’s east coast. Even Disney Land is hundreds of miles from here and we’re working.”_

_“Sorry,” Rin said, eyes downcast. He didn’t think to call Bon a stick in the mud, even though he had Angel’s implicit permission to do a little sightseeing._

_“But we are crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and I don’t see a problem with stopping off at Fisherman’s Wharf for a quick lunch before we head north,” Tereza Durov said as the Tamer Adept followed them out of the church. “We won’t get many good pictures though, too much haze from the fires.”_

_“Angel told us there were a bunch of Raiju causing problems around here,” Rin said, suddenly all business. “You wanted Bon and I ‘cause it’s Iblis causing trouble again.”_

_“Raiju-like,” Durov corrected. “Lightning-beasts yes, but not the ones you may be familiar with. We’ve identified Binesi, giant eagles with lightning tails, Pukwudgie, porcupine-like trolls that start fires and shoot poison arrows and Ani Hyuntikwalaski, a less spiny relative of the Pukwudgie.” She handed Bon a note card. “Fatal verses for Ani Hyuntikwalaski and Pukwudgie,” she said. “We have half a dozen Shamen from the Northwest trying to find a verse for the Binesi. I want you and Rin… well we’ll see when we get to the fires, but the Binesi aren’t going to be your focus.”_

_Bon accepted the cards with a puzzled look. “Binesi, all Thunderbirds really, are somewhere between benevolent and indifferent toward humans.”_

_“Pukwudgie were friendly toward Assiah once,” Durov replied. “Before Iblis came to power, but times change. And this was anything but a spur of the moment attack. Iblis has had his Ifrit harassing the region’s native rain spirits for several years now. The whole of Northern California stretching up into Oregon is a drought-stricken tinderbox this summer.”_

_“Why didn’t the True Cross go after the Ifrit if we knew about them?” Rin asked._

_“You know I’m not the Grigori’s biggest fan but the Pacific is a big, uninhabited place to patrol,” Durov replied. “And even when we did manage to stumble across them it didn’t end well. Exorcists standing on boats against winged fire demons… The demons tend to burn the boats then laugh as the survivors drown in the ocean.”_

_When Durov let them off at the wharf while she went to park Rin quickly lined up at the first food booth he saw._

_“I thought you wanted clam chowder,” Bon said. He pointed to another stand a half block away._

_“The line’s longer,” Rin said._

_“By two people,” Bon said frowning._

_“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Rin agreed._

_Durov looked surprised when the two boys met her coming from the car with take out. “Take a deep breath you two, we have plenty of time,” she said. “The rest of the team is out scouting the area. They aren’t expecting us until mid-afternoon.”_

_Bon scratched his head and looked away, embarrassed. Rin sighed as he felt the tension that had been twisting in his gut slip away. They listened to a street performer while they finished their lunch then started the drive north. Rin gazed, slack-jawed at the Golden Gate Bridge as they drove across it, craning his neck to watch it falling behind them until the highway passed through a tunnel and the mountain spur hid it from view. But as the road wound northward the skies grew increasingly dark with smoke and Rin’s expression turned grim as he began to get a feel for the scope of the damage Iblis’ minions were doing._

_“Greece is a long way from here, most Americans believe the Cult of Gaia are a bunch of kooks and the Greek president was a wimp to submit to their demands,” Durov remarked as they pulled off on a hiking trail. “Local officials aren’t co-operating with us and firefighters on site are likely to treat us as civilians if they see us. I hope you boys don’t mind a hike because this is as close as we can get by car without being turned back.”_

_“We’re good,” Rin said and Bon nodded._

_Five miles in they met up with the rest of their team: The six Aria Durov had mentioned, Shamen from various regions in the Americas, three Tamers, two with Water Affinity like Durov and one with Earth Affinity, four Knights and a Doctor. Durov pointed them toward a trail and they started off at a ground eating pace that they maintained for several hours. The trail wound up a narrow valley. Massive redwoods, the likes of which Rin had never seen before, towered above them their tops lost in a fog of smoke._

_As they got closer to the fire site Rin heard the sound of roaring, he noticed that he was the only one not dripping with sweat. In the distance he saw a helicopter with a water bucket suspended below it flying toward a column of black smoke rising from the neighboring valley. Then they crossed a ridge and the light changed, daylight turning a muted orange, sun filtered through a thick haze of smoke. The opposite slope was alive with fire, flames stretching over a hundred feet in the air._

_Durov pointed at what looked like a ball of spikes crouched on their side of the creek. There was a burst of sparks and the sound of wicked laughter. The creature turned, from the front it was a greyish troll thing, about three feet tall but stout with a bow slung over it’s shoulder. It sneered at them, quickly unlimbering it’s bow and firing an arrow. One of the knights darted forward and knocked the arrow out of the air with his sword. The Pukwudgie leapt across the stream and vanished into the depths of the fire._

_“Okumura-kun, take control of the fire,” Durov ordered. Rin looked at her questioningly. “Send your flames into the fire, make it yours,” she instructed. “When my brother, when Veles enters any body of water it becomes his. I’d betting you’re the same.”_

_“I’ll try,” Rin said. He walked up to the blaze the Pukwudgie had started and thrust his hand into it. In an instant the flames on their side of the brook turned blue and wrapped themselves around Rin._

_‘I knew you could do it,” Durov encouraged. “Now try to be subtle, don’t let it spread but don’t take it over completely.”_

_Rin bit his lip, gradually the flames turned orange again and returned to the underbrush instead of clinging to him._

_“Very good. On to something bigger,” Durov pointed across the brook. “Like before, don’t be obvious but let it become you, spread your senses through it, then tell me what you feel.”_

_Rin put out the Pukwudgie’s fire, hopped over the brook and walked into the wall of flames. He closed his eyes, he let his perceptions leak out into the surrounding wildfire. Concentrating fiercely he tried to follow Durov’s instruction to be subtle rather than giving in to his impulse to spread his power as far as he could and order the fire to stop burning. Gently he reined it in, cooling the flames so they didn’t threaten the trees and structures, turned it back in on itself, away from the firefighters he could feel trying to extinguish it. Then his mouth popped open. He raced back to the edge of the brook. “I can feel them!” he exclaimed. “The other demons. I can feel where the fire doesn’t obey me, it’s the other fire demons!”_

_Durov gave him a predatory smile. “So, you and Suguro here, do you feel like going hunting?”_

* * *

_Ignoring the flames raging around him, Bon raised his radio, “First concentration was three Binesi flying southeast, about a hundred yards ahead of our current position,” he reported._

_“Next one’s that way,” Rin said leading Bon through the blaze. They continued on through alien landscape of orange flames and blackened tree-trunks stripped of their foliage for another twenty minutes. Peering through the flames they spotted a gathering of Pukwudgie and Ani Hyuntikwalaski. Some of the small grey skinned beings were trying to build the flames higher while others argued with each other gesturing agitatedly to the flames. Rin snickered, it looked like the two demon tribes were blaming each other for the limits he’d placed on the fire._

_They pulled back several yards then Bon reported in, “Group of twenty, mixed Pukwudgie and Ani Hyuntikwalaski.”_

_Durov took a moment before replying. “That’s… well, pretty damn close to my limit for you two. Do you think you can handle them? Remember, that fatal verses lose effectiveness on mobs: Suguro, you won’t take out more than three demons with each recitation so there’s a good chance they’ll try to swarm you.”_

_“Rin?” Bon asked._

_“We can handle it,” Rin decided. “I saw a group of boulders at the west side of their position, you use them for cover. I’ll go in and start a fight. You start chanting once they’re focused on me.”_

_“Sounds like you’ve got a plan,” Durov replied. “We’re moving east to try to intercept the Binesi if you need to fall back.”_

_“Don’t shoot unless they find you,” Rin instructed as he and Bon split up._

_Bon sighed. “Does Konekomaru have everyone convinced I’m that bad at tactics?” he asked._

_“You are that bad, you want to take all the risks yourself,” Rin teased, comfortable about pointing out Bon’s flaws when it came to a fight._

_“Like you’re any different,” Bon muttered._

_“I’m a knight, you’re my Aria, taking the risks is my priviledge,” Rin informed Bon. “But don’t worry, you set the course and we’ll steer the boat. I don’t tell you how to manage the High Council.”_

_“No you leave it to Koneko,” Bon grumbled._

_Rin flashed a quick grin and gave Bon a light shove in the direction of the boulders. He waited five minutes for Bon to get into position then, leaving Kurikara sheathed, he drew his katana and wakizashi and strolled into the clearing._

_Rin’s easy relaxed air kept the fire demons from really noticing him until he was right in the middle of them. “Exorcist!” one of Pukwudgie exclaimed and Rin attacked. The two nearest demons died before they could react to the warning shout, gouts of flame exploding from their bodies in the place of blood. Then Rin was in the middle of the crowd. The tactic was less effective than normal as the tallest of his opponents were not quite three feet and the archers simply aimed over their allies’ heads to target him._

_As Rin wove and dodged around the arrows the fire around them took on a blue hue._

_The Pukwudgie and Ani Hyuntikwalaski gave the blue flames a wary distance but they were quickly regrouping. The Pukwudgie archers fell back while the knife-wielding Ani Hyuntikwalaski moved in to harass Rin._

_From concealment, Bon fixed his eyes on the back-most archers and started chanting. A couple minutes later three of the Pukwudgie vanished into small puffs of smoke. Bon focused on a second grouping and began the verse again._

_There were six bodies on the ground at Rin’s feet but the archers were starting to get his measure. Blood was trickling down his arm from where he’d been grazed. Rin leapt high into the air, somersaulting over the Ani Hyuntikwalaski and impaling one of the Pukwudgie archers on the south side of the clearing as he landed. Rin quickly twisted and his wakizashi took another in the throat. “Adept, arrows are poisoned,” Rin reported over an open mic. “Fast acting but it burns easy enough.” He kicked the body off his sword and resumed fighting. “I thought Insect demons were the poisoners.”_

_“Kingdoms rise and fall, loyalties shift,” Durov replied. “Do you need support?”_

_“Naw, Bon just took out another trio and I’m only scratched,” Rin answered. As he spoke he saw a flash of movement in the dirt and whipped his sword around, the blade rebounded as if he’d hit steel. A large snake reared up, it’s scales had a metallic luster, it’s head was a sharp-edged wedge and when it hissed lightning crackled out of it’s mouth._

_“New demon,” Rin reported. He backed away from the snake warily, his eyes scanning the ground and he quickly picked out several dozen more of them. “Snake, sharp head, lightning tongue.”_

_“Get out of there!” Durov ordered. “Haietlik, water-snake!” It was easier said than done. The snakes had surrounded Rin before making their move._

_“Pretend to the Throne of Flames,” hissed the snake that had attacked Rin._

_Rin gave it a blank look but felt a measure of relief as Bon took out the last of the archers. He slashed at the snake with his sword. There was a metallic clang and the snake was thrown several meters away, it shook itself and slithered over to fill a spot left open as other Haietlik moved forward to confront Rin._

_Rin continued to defend himself against the snakes’ attacks but it was like fighting animated swords: He could block but they were too light and their skins too tough for him to do more than knock them away when he attacked in turn._

_Bon switched his focus to the five remaining Ani Hyuntikwalaski, the only demons left of original group. He didn’t know a fatal verse for the Haietlik._

_Rin was growing frustrated. When one of the Haietlik lunged at him, he side-stepped its knife-like head and, putting all his weight and strength behind it, drove the point of his katana through the back of it’s skull. The snake was driven to the ground, Rin’s sword crunched through scale, bone and deep into the earth beneath. Before he could pull his sword free three more snakes attacked him and he was forced to abandon the sword._

_There were only two Ani Hyuntikwalaski left, as Bon started his last recitation he drew his gun. He traded a holy water clip for one with sacred soil on the assumption that water snakes with fire in theirs mouth were more likely to share a Water Demon’s weakness than a Fire Demon’s. As he chanted he drew bead on one of the snakes. With the last word of the verse Bon pulled the trigger. The snake’s head exploded in a spray of gore._

_Rin drew Kurikara and started working his way toward Bon. Up to that point Rin had deliberately been keeping the demons between himself and Bon to prevent Bon being hit by a stray arrow as much as to keep the demons’ attention away from the Aria’s hiding spot. Now, with Bon out in the open, Rin felt an urgent need to get to Bon’s side._

_Bon continued firing, trying to target the snakes between himself and Rin but without the luxury of time to aim him hit-rate dropped sharply. Bon gritted his teeth, trying and too often failing to predict the direction the Haietlik were going to move in. For a moment Rin remembered his first day at the Academy, goblins swarming the classroom after he’d broken a vial of blood and Yukio firing shot after shot, taking down the goblins as they reached for the students, never missing, never faltering. Bon was steadily improving as a Dragoon, but he had a long way to go before he’d come close to Yukio’s level._

_The Haietlik looked between Rin and Bon, they started slithering toward Bon, picking him as the easier target. “No!” Rin shouted. He swung Kurikara and an arc of flames scattered the snakes, the three that took direct hits were incinerated. Then he dashed across the intervening ground to plant himself in front of Bon._

_Bon clapped Rin on the shoulder as he raised a barrier around the two of them._

_“You know we’re stuck now?” Rin murmured quietly, his soft voice blending in to Bon’s chanting. Bon grimaced and resolved to start working on mobile barriers._

_“Rin!” Durov exclaimed over the radio, “What happened the flames just turned blue for miles around.”_

_The snakes slithered around around Bon and Rin until they had the pair completely surrounded. “Adept, you know that retreat you ordered?” he sighed._

_“We’re enroute,” Durov replied._

_“We’ll hold out,” Rin said. “We’re down to around thirty snakes and Bon’s got a barrier on both of us.” He watched one of the snakes bounce off the barrier. “It’s as tough as always.”_

_“Keep the mic open,” Durov ordered. “We’ll be there soon.”_

_“Got it,” Rin said. “Borrow power from me if you start getting tired,” he reminded Bon. Then all they could do was wait and watch while the Haietlik tried to batter down Bon’s barrier._

_“Hault, Nakuset commands you.” An old man appeared out of the fire, the walking stick in his hand was topped with a shining sunstone larger than a human fist, his stark white hair hung loose over his shoulders. The Haietlik paused in their assault but kept Rin and Bon surrounded. Similarly Rin and Bon remained on guard but made no move to take advantage of the lull._

_“Iblis will not forgive a disruption to his plan,” one of the snakes hissed._

_“The Trickster whispers that a time of change is upon us,” Nakuset replied. “The thousand broken pantheons are coming together to become one whole. The gods of this land will no longer be subservient to the Sons of Satan.”_

_The snakes hissed to each other for several minutes. It was apparent that they couldn’t reach consensus among themselves._

_“Sedna has gone to Egyn to declare her independence,” Nakuset added, sparking a new round of debate among the Haietlik._

_“She should talk to Gaia first,” Rin said as he sheathed Kurikara. “Egyn’ll do whatever she says and Shiemi, Gaia’s host will listen to you.”_

_“You are truthful young Fire Prince,” Nakuset acknowledged Rin. He turned back to the Haietlik “Will you do Iblis’ work for him? Or allow the Fire Prince and Ucchusma’s people to continue drawing Iblis’ ire away from the rest of us?” Slowly the snakes withdrew. A Binesi dropped out of the sky, shrinking as it descended until it could perch comfortably on Nakuset’s shoulder. The old sun-god turned to leave._

_“Wait,” Bon called allowing his barrier to drop. “The Myo’o Dhari are offering refuge to anyone from the Fire Kingdom who won’t knuckle under to Iblis.”_

_“No thank you,” Nakuset replied firmly. He offered Rin a shallow bow. “Good things are said of the Assiah-reared Fire Prince but you are so very young. In another five hundred years, if you continue as you’ve begun, we may be willing to treat with you. But not yet.”_

_Rin looked down at the ground. “ ‘Cause I’m a ‘Son of Satan’ too,” he guessed._

_“Your older brothers tore our pantheons to shreds, claimed us for their various kingdoms as if we were chatel and killed those who refused to submit,” Nakuset stated. “Come back when you are older and have proven that you are not cut of the same cloth.”_

_“Well, I guess I’ll see you again in five hundred years,” Rin replied as the sun-god turned again to leave._

_Nakuset glanced back at Rin, ”Realize we waited for your arrival Fire Prince,” he said. “You’ll take both credit and blame for the collapse of Iblis’ plan today.”_

_“I can guess who suggested that,” Bon muttered._

_“All I care is that Iblis’ war on Assiah and him murdering his people if they don’t go along with him stops,” Rin said._

_Nakuset nodded gravely and then he was gone. Rin stretched out his senses, “They’re all gone,” he reported. “There’s nothing demonic about the fire anymore. I’m telling it to itself burn out..”_

_“Okumura, Suguro,” Durov’s voice came over the radio. “Get to cover. There’s a storm coming in fast. The region’s storm-spirits are returning with a vengeance. Rin, this stuff is going to be a weapon targeted against the Flame Kingdom.”_

_Rin winced as the first drop of rain struck him. “Jacket over your head,” Bon ordered as he pulled off his own coat. He wrapped the longer Exorcists’ coat around Rin’s shoulders while tugging Rin’s Exwire jacket to cover Rin’s head more completely._

_“It’s okay,” Rin told him. He allowed his flames to manifest and the rain evaporated before it was within a half meter of him. But Bon didn’t take his coat back and Rin didn’t take it off. Rin did extend his flames to keep Bon dry as well. “Cut that out!” Bon exclaimed and Rin wilted._

_“It won’t hurt me to get wet,” Bon clarified. “I don’t want you running out of power before we get back to the van. You’ve been keeping the fire away from me for most of a day now, plus fighting, and you said you just turned off a whole forest fire, you’ve got to be running on fumes.” Rin didn’t say anything, he just trudged off in the direction of the van._

_They met up with Durov’s team on their way back. “Good job today, now get back to the van.” the Tamer-Adept said clapping Bon on the shoulder then hesitating and giving Rin a thumbs up rather than touching him while he was wreathed in blue flames._

_Rin gave her a strained smile in return._

_“Once the rain clears up we’ve got some sightseeing to do, right?” Tezera offered as an apology._

_Rin’s expression brightened, “Right. So, um, is there anything else we can help with?”_

_“Rin!” Bon snapped. “You’ve got to get out of this rain!”_

_“Yeah, yeah,” Rin sighed and started walking again._

_“Wait,” Durov called._

_Rin just kept walking until Bon called, “Rin?” Then he stopped and turned back to see what Durov wanted._

_“You did great,” she reiterated. “I was hoping to use the two of you to scout and take out smaller groups of demons. Instead you resolved the whole situation. So both of you get back to the van and take it easy while the rest of us do something to earn our paychecks, okay?”_

_Rin flushed. “We didn’t really do so much, just showed up and gave Nakuset and his friends their cue to rebel… and we didn’t even know we were doing it.”_

_“Nakuset is a Grand Duke of Hell, Ucchusma’s peer, and you made a good first impression, don’t belittle that,” Durov said. “The Grigori won’t say it, but Assiah needs to win back support from the Fire Kingdom and we’re not going to manage that by force.”_

_“I-, um- well I should get out of the rain right?” ” Rin stammered and practically fled Durov’s praise. Bon hurried after Rin._

_When they got back to the van Rin grabbed Bon’s arm, in a moment the Aria was bone dry. “Don’t tell me how much power I’ve got,” Rin said as he handed Bon’s coat back to him. Then Rin plopped down in the rear seat of the van and stared out the window at the rain pouring down._

_Bon sighed, “Sorry Rin, I… It’s just you have a history with holy water.”_

_“You don’t have to worry about me,” Rin said, still looking out the window. “Between all the work I’ve done with Ucchumsa on controlling my flames and my promise to Mephisto-ni I’ll never come in contact with more than a few drops of holy water. As soon as I realize it’s there I’ll burn it away.”_

_An uncomfortable silence settled over the pair for several minutes._

_“Trickster is one of the other names that Sir Pheles uses isn’t it?” Bon asked casting around for a topic when the silence became too suffocating. “I’d bet it was him who suggested waiting for you to get involved before making their move.”_

_“Yeah,” Rin sighed, giving in to Bon’s desire to smooth things over between them. “Maybe big brother’s old enough for them to trust.”_

_“Or he never told them that he’s also Samael,” Bon speculated disapprovingly._

_Rin shrugged. “So what do you want to see in San Francisco?”_

_“I was planning on just heading home,” Bon said. “You know, Council stuff.”_

_Rin wrinkled his nose. “I only see you when there’s work,” he complained._

_Bon glanced away, “Isn’t that for best? Look at what just happened. Wouldn’t you rather I wasn’t around to give you orders?”_

_“No!” Rin exclaimed. “You promised to be family and maybe family is just people keeping you at a distance and not telling you stuff for your own good but… But that’s not what I want!”_

_“I… guess I wouldn’t mind seeing the Mission Dolores,” Bon said reluctantly. “We could stop at the viewing area before we cross the Golden Gate Bridge on our way back, so what else is on your list?”_

_“Alcatraz” Rin declared. “And Itamae-sensei recommended the Restaurant Gary Danko if we can talk Adept-Durov into it for our post mission dinner.”_

_“Sounds good to me,” Bon said. “I could put off the Council for a couple of days.”_

_“You’re lousy when it comes to making excuses,” Rin said, rolling his eyes, “This was supposed to be a two week mission, I got a special extension on the test for my summer recitation class. No one is expecting us any time soon.”_

_“Wasn’t like I put much effort into it,” Bon muttered. “I figured you were just asking to be polite. About that test of yours…”_

_They ended up spending three days sightseeing in San Francisco with Durov and her team. When the chef realized that Rin was Itamae’s protege he was quickly swept away to spend most of the evening talking shop. In addition to the list Rin and Bon put together they were directed to little hole in the wall restaurants and a used bookstore Bon was only pried out of with threats of violence. They saw the Redwoods and Lombard Street. Rin filled up the memory on his phone with pictures and filled a backpack to overflowing with souvenirs for everyone: Alcatraz tee-shirts for Mephisto and Renzo, a book on supernatural San Francisco for Konekomaru, a bag of Giant Redwood seeds for Shiemi, coffee cups for Angel and Lightning, Ghirardelli chocolate for the rest of the dorm, a variety of the strangest candy he could find for Amaimon and a necklace for Izumo._

_The test came and went. Rin got an A-minus and missed a date with Izumo because he was studying with Bon._

* * *

Izumo clutched her naginata tightly with a clawed hand. Her face felt oddly stretched, her mouth and nose shifted into a muzzle by the depth of power she was drawing from Inari. The sulfur smell filling the air was too strong, the sounds of battle too loud but it was the only way she could possibly venture into Gehenna proper with the rescue party. She knew the humans were almost certainly dead, that only made it more imperative that she reach her mate’s side soon, they were precious to him and he’d bleed with their loss. 

The main front of the battle looked like a flood fighting a volcano. Ryujin’s forces had taken point and were sweeping away Iblis’ footsoldiers. There were outcroppings of lava breaking up the flood waters were higher level Flame Demons were providing bulwarts for their allies to rally around. The Myo’o Dhari Naga joined Wani and Kappa in laying siege to those points. Izumo’s, Inari’s foxes darted about, faster than almost anything else on the field, providing support where they could, digging channels to allow water into the Flame Demons’ defenses, fighting directly with the enemy forces. The Salamanders and a number of the other Myo’o Dhari allied fire demons hung back, shielded from the flood waters by earth banks thrown up by the platoon of Hobgolins sent by Amaimon. They were waiting for Water Demons’ mass attack to abade and individual battles to become the rule of the day. In the air above the battlefield Iblis’ fire-drakes and soucouyants clashed with Ucchusma and the refugee sun birds, they filled the skies with fire. Mephisto strolled about the battlefield like a spectator at a sports match, no one there showed the slightest inclination to challenge him.

Izumo’s large silver fox ears twitched. “You hear it too My Lady?” Mike asked. Izumo nodded, “Beneath us.” She and her familiars spread out, warning the Salamander and Hobgoblins away from the point where they could hear burrowing. When a cherufe’s front claws poked out of the ground, followed by its snout, Izumo lunged forward and drove her blade deep into it’s eye-socket. 

A horde of pukwudgie clammered over the cherufe’s corpse, quickly throwing up a wall of shields around the tunnel creating a base for their archers to fire on Myo’o Dhari Alliance center. Izumo shouted an alarm, several hobgoblin responded by throwing up earthen breastworks of their own. 

“Stop the arrows!” Izumo commanded Mike and Uke. The two byakko leapt into the air, snatching arrow after arrow before they could find their marks among the Myo’o Dhari forces. Then Ryujin arrived, he pointed his fists at make-shift fortress and blasted it with a massive water-spout, washing away the shields and flooding the tunnel. A number of salamander quickly fell on the disordered pukwudgie and tore them limb from limb.

As the Hobgoblin set about sealing the tunnel a hush spread across the battlefield. Ucchusma landed near Izumo and Ryujin. “Rin and Iblis have called a truce,” he said. “The two of them are going to settle this in single combat.”

“Then we should hurry,” Mephisto said, appearing out of nowhere. “Wouldn’t want to miss the show.” 

Izumo bared her teeth at him.

“Someone should take over keeping Suguro-kun and the Paladin alive so Rin can focus on his battle,” Mephisto amended giving her a pat on the head. She swiped at his arm with her spear and he laughed at her. Then he sauntered off leaving the others to hurry after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haietlik - Nootka legendary creature (British Columbia)   
> Binesi - Ojibwa thunderbird (Great Lakes)  
> Ani Hyuntikwalaski - Cherokee legendary creature (American Southeast)  
> Pukwudgie - Wampanoag legendary creature (Massachusetts)  
> Nakuset - Mi’kmaq sun god (Newfoundland)  
> Sedna - Inuit sea goddess (Greenland, Northern Canada, Alaska)


	14. Oath Management

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated to extend Rin vs Iblis a bit.

Bon and Yuri continued their debate. Rin remained on the ground, the lash of Iblis’ whip wrapped around his throat, his eyes glazed. Quietly Angel straightened. “Are you ready?” he murmured to Caliburn, his expression peaceful. 

The sword began to vibrate with anticipation. 

Angel flipped Caliburn up so the sword rested on his shoulder, the blade against his own throat.

* * *

It was only after his talk with Bon during their mission to the States that Rin truly realized just how long Bon had been avoiding him. When Bon stopped his avoidance his fights with Izumo ramped up almost immediately. Rin remembered: 

_Rin knocked then stood in the hall outside the apartment shifting nervously from one foot to the other._

_Angel looked surprised when he answered the door. “Okumura-kun, what bring you here?”_

_“Well, um, there was something I wanted to ask Lightning?” Rin said uncertainly._

_“Come on in,” Lightning called from deeper in the apartment. Angel stepped aside, holding the door for Rin. Lightning was seated at their kitchen table, stacks of reports were arrayed around him. Angel moved one stack from a chair to the top of the refrigerator and offered Rin the newly cleared seat._

_“What is all this?” Rin asked staring at the masses of paper._

_“He’s looking for a pattern in Iblis’ activity,” Angel explained. “He thinks we might be able to figure out his next move and counter it.”_

_“Really?” Rin asked impressed._

_“Well, no luck so far,” Lightning admitted. “But it’s better than sitting around twiddling our thumbs. So what did you need to ask that couldn’t wait for your recitation session tomorrow morning?”_

_“Um, well, the mission in California? One of the snake demons called me ‘Pretender to the Throne of Flames’?” Rin stammered. “I don’t have a clue what it meant.”_

_“Iblis thinks you’re planning a coup,” Angel answered before Lightning could and seemed rather pleased with himself to have done so. “You do have a very legitimate claim to his throne.”_

_“But why would I want it?” Rin replied wrinkling his nose. “Why would I want to be king of a bunch of demons?”_

_“It’d certainly solve our Blessed Ashes shortage,” Lightning remarked. “Not to mention putting you in a position to end the Flame Kingdom’s war on Assiah with a single decree.”_

_“I want to take Iblis out,” Rin shaking his head. “But take his place? No, thanks.”_

_“Anubis is barely seated on his throne and Amaimon is dealing with the territory he reclaimed when Astaroth fell plus the territory Kamiki ceded to him from Azazel’s Kingdom last fall. Lucifer has fallen. With no clear successor the Kingdom of Light has become a mass of quarreling duchies and Iblis and Azazel are both gobbling whatever they can at the borders. Neither of them are really the Hell Kings that we of Assiah want gaining more power. If Iblis falls without a successor Beelzebub is the most likely to expand into his territory and he isn’t a friend to Assiah either. Now we’ve added the Thousand Pantheon’s revolt to the growing anarchy and there’s Gaia’s returned and reunification of the Earth and Water kingdoms under her. Those may very well be good things, but it’s still engendering more unrest.” Lightning shrugged, “Iblis is a problem but if Gehenna gets much more chaotic, there’ll be no telling how the chips will fall. If you take Iblis down there won’t be much doubt that you’re the rightful King of Flames, you could stabilize an eighth of Gehenna, add the Fire Kingdom to Gaia’s coalition and nearly half of Gehenna would be at peace with Assiah. Now, I don’t want you to go after Iblis or do anything to hurry a confrontation between the two of you along, but it’s coming, you know that as well as anyone. So think about what you’ll do after you win it, Rin. You saw what Iblis started in California and the other attacks, if you lose it will be disastrous for Assiah.”_

_Rin swallowed and nodded._

_Then Lightning cracked a smile, “A little more than you wanted from your transparent excuse for stopping by?” he asked. “Now are you going to tell us why you’re really here?”_

_Rin looked guilty then with a sigh he admitted, “‘Cause Bon and Izumo know to look for me at Mephisto’s? Then when they find me there that leads right into their follow up fight about which of them’s to blame for making me want to hide in the first place.”_

_“I thought they were trying to get along this week,” Lightning remarked._

_“As long as they think I’m in earshot,” Rin replied. “Only I hear way better than they realize and they always forget they’re trying not to let me know they’re fighting and start shouting at each other... And sometimes I just like hanging out with Mephisto-ni, not that either of them will believe that! Besides he’s been telling Egyn and Amaimon that anime’s a good way to figure out how to act around humans then he shows them a bunch of shoujo harem stuff. I owe it to Shiemi to tell those two that he’s lying through his teeth and she won’t like it if they start acting like that.”_

_“Should we speak to them?” Angel offered. “Suguro and Kamiki I mean, not the romantically befuddled demon kings.”_

_“No!” Rin exclaimed, he hopped up to grab Angel’s arm as if he were afraid the Paladin was about to do rush off to do just that. “Paku tried it, it was horrible! Bon got all guilty and weird and then I just wanted to do anything to stop making him unhappy about being oath bound to me and that made Izumo mad and she told Bon about how I was feeling which made him even guiltier and round and round we go.”_

_“You should talk with Pheles,” Angel said. “An oath shouldn’t have so much influence on you.”_

_Rin hunched his shoulders guiltily. “He’s just going to lecture me again.”_

_Lightning patted Rin on the head, “Because when you give your word you want to keep it. And not only that, you want to make everyone happy in the keeping of it. You’re going to have to get over that tendency Rin-kun, you know that don’t you? You’ll tear yourself to shreds trying to make everyone happy all the time.”_

_Rin sighed and buried his head in his arms. “Can’t I just hide here for a little?”_

_“You can help me sort reports,” Angel said. He handed Rin a tall stack of papers “There is a system to this mess or so I’ve been told.”_

* * *

_The next morning Rin let himself into Mephisto’s office. He slipped through the barely open door then stood with his back against the wall, eyes fixed on the edge of the plush rug a few inches in front of his toes. “Mephisto-ni,” he said quietly. “I need help dealing with my oath to Bon.”_

_“Excellent, you’re ready to begin the next stage of your education as a demon,” Mephisto exclaimed. “Or more correctly, you’re ready to make up a developmental stage that you missed because you weren’t born a fully awakened demon. Until the winter before last your human blood sheltered you from demon oaths. You neither learned nor needed to learn how to cope with them. What took you so long to ask for the help I’ve been trying to push on you since your first lesson in negotiation?”_

_Rin looked away._

_“Ah, no matter!” Mephisto declared. “We’ll need Ryuji-kun for this.” He was across the room in a flash,. A key ring appeared out of thin air in his hand and when he used it to open the door Bon’s Chemistry class was on the other side, “You don’t mind if I borrow Suguro-san for a moment?” He asked the teacher and swept Bon out of the room without waiting for an answer._

_“Rin-kun has asked my assistance in learning to manage his bond to you,” Mephisto announced grinning madly._

_Rin stared at Mephisto with wide, horror stricken eyes._

_“Ah… So that’s why it took you so long,” Mephisto said, putting a hand on Rin’s shoulder. “To you, the idea of managing your oath feels like a betrayal of what you promised.” He spun around to fix Bon with a laser-like stare. “What do you think of the notion of Rin-kun learning to resist the power over him that his Oath grants you?”_

_“It would be a relief,” Bon told Rin. “I worry all the time about whether or not I’m abusing your Oath.”_

_“There, you see, you have his blessing,” Mephisto said. “Now, the first thing the two of you should know: There are certain perks to being the parent of a fully awakened demon. For example, filial piety is a default setting, enforced by Oaths. No one knows exactly what the oath is since infants make it instinctively, without words, but obedience to one’s parents is ingrained. Thus it is the parents’ duty to teach their children independence, to become consciously aware of the Oath’s pull and to learn to counterbalance it.”_

_“How could that be?” Bon demanded. “Satan led a rebellion against God. You and Amaimon are in revolt against Satan, who is your father, and Egyn hates him even more than the two of you. Why would Satan teach you to resist his influence?”_

_“I said it is a default setting,” Mephisto reiterated. “Satan and his followers in the first generation were not born subject to Demon Oaths. Originally they owed obedience only to the Eldest but in overcoming that inclination they unintentionally created the Oaths. The second generation, the Nephilim, were the undeniable proof of their parents’ defiance of the Eldest’s will. As we Nephilim came of age we discovered what our parents had wrought, much to our horror.”_

_“My knowledge of demon-kind’s history is patchy and second hand for the next few dozen generations. I was first consigned to the Void as punishment for the war I waged on the Heavens along with Satan and the rest of his followers. When those few of us who managed to survive returned to the Reflected Worlds I learned the Eldest was less the tyrant than I’d previously believed and returned to the Void as a voluntary exile to properly pay the toll for my willfulness.” Mephisto shrugged, “By the time I returned to Assiah from my second exile, Demon Oaths were simply a fact of life not the shock they were to those of my generation. Demon parents teach their children to deal with them just as modern human parents teach their children to look both ways before crossing the street.”_

_Seeing Bon readying another argument, Mephisto gestured for him to hold for a moment longer. “The trick is you initially need a powerful Oath to someone you trust absolutely to practice resistance. Fortunately, those born as fully awakened demons instinctually bind themselves to their parents or in the absence of parents to whomever raises them while they are still infants. And you are correct Ryuji-kun, Satan is not in the running for any best parenting awards. Luckily an acrimonious relationship between mates creates a natural counterbalance for their children’s oaths: Amaimon and Egyn think for themselves because they’ve always had to chose between their bonds to their mothers and their bond to Satan. Astaroth and Iblis were less fortunate but there is little I can do to rectify their poor upbringing.”_

_“I don’t think the Myodha will like it when they figure out you’re using Bon to teach me how to break Oaths,” Rin said looking agitated despite Bon’s approval. He couldn’t help but worry that he was going to get the other boy in trouble somehow._

_Bon shook his head. “My dad planned this. He told me I could be a buffer for you, protect you from other Oaths until you’d figured out how to manage them.”_

_Mephisto grinned, “Yes, you are to act in loco parentis for Rin-kun. The bond between the two of you is very strong. As you’ve discovered, it works on Rin even in the absence of specific orders from you.” The older demon turned to Rin. “You are drawn to please Ryuji-kun, to live up to his expectations. I’ve been watching you very closely this last year: When your attention is drawn to the fact you can recognized the Oath’s influence but when you don’t think about it you simply acted in accord with your subconscious interpretation of the Oath’s demands.”_

_“It’s really okay?” Rin asked Bon._

_“Hell yeah,” Bon replied. “I never wanted this much power over you. Getting us back on even footing would be great for me.”_

_“Perfect,” Mephisto exclaimed clapping his hands. “Now, little brother, you have two conflicting pulls: Ryuji-kun has said he wants less power over you but you and I both know he also wants you to pass the the Exorcist Exam in January... Even if it’s not in your nature to be particularly studious, certainly not to the extent of standing up the lovely Izumo-chan four times in twice as many weeks to review your homework instead. Can you feel the tension between those two contradictory desires: Relieve Ryuji-kun of his worries about abusing your Oath of Fealty or his fears that the Grigori may at any moment reinstate their ultimatum that you must pass the Exam or die?”_

_Rin concentrated, his forehead scrunching up. After several moments he shook his head._

_Mephisto crouched in front of Rin. He put his hands on Rin’s temples, staring fixedly into Rin’s eyes. “You must learn this,” he stated. “You’ve seen the blindings on your soul in moments of extremity, but you have to learn to sense them all the time, every moment of every day.”_

_Rin felt as if he were drowning in emeralds._

_“When you can feel bonds pulling at you, shaping you, you can balance one against another. When you are aware and in control you are the spider sitting in the center of a web, the one in control. When the oaths work on you unaware, you are nothing more than clay in a potter’s hands. When you look in the mirror and see what you’ve been shaped into you’ll believe that the gargoyle staring back at you was always you. You will learn to manage this.”_

* * *

Rin snapped the whip around his neck, whirled around and grabbed Caliburn’s hilt. He forced the sword point first into the ground.

Angel blinked at Rin, his reflexes slowed by blood loss. “I’ll be unconscious in a few minutes, useless,” he pointed out. He’d never contested Rin’s demonic strength and didn’t bother to now. “This is the best course.” 

Rin shook his head. “You’ll die.”

“Which resolves my dilemma quite neatly.” Angel’s gaze strayed past Rin’s shoulder settling on Iblis. “A Hell King, I’ll never have a better chance.”

“No.” Rin smiled, “I made a deal.”

“Oh,” As Angel tried to process that, his knees buckled. 

Rin caught the Paladin as he fell. For a moment he pressed his hand over the wound on Angel’s side, cauterizing it. Then he handed the older knight over to Bon. “When we get back to Assiah, remember to tell me that the promise I made to Ueno distracts me from my Oath to you or something so it doesn’t count,” Rin said. “But um, wait until we’re in front of her okay? I don’t actually want to attack her or even Suzuki, so that’s the only way she’ll know I’m not bound by her stupid Oath anymore.”

Bon smiled broadly, “Sounds good to me.” 

“You’re still loyal to them?” Yuri asked as the implications of Rin returning to Assiah with Bon sunk in. 

Rin scowled at her. “You could have just asked: My friendships are real, the bonds I’ve made with them are real.”

“So even with their lies laid bare you still cleave to them?” Yuri sounded hurt.

“What lies?” Rin snapped. “Bon and Izumo both worry way more about my Fealty Oath to Bon than I do. I trust them. I trust Bon to do what’s right and to look out for me. I trust Izumo to kick his ass if he he can’t manage to do both at the same time.” He glanced back at Bon. “Don’t override Iblis and I’s deal okay?” he said. “Me against Iblis, for everything: Our lives and the Flame Kingdom. That’s how I understood it. Sound about right to you?” he asked Iblis.

“For your mother’s sake, I wanted to leave you an out short of death,” Iblis replied, “But if you’re too foolish to take it… Let it be on your head.”

“No!” Yuri exclaimed, desperation filling her voice. “Rin! The True Cross is out to kill you. Like always, the Paladin is nothing more than their weapon. Give him up and Iblis will allow the other one safe passage out of Gehenna.”

“I will not!” Iblis protested.

Yuri turned and stomped her foot angrily as she glared at Iblis, “You will! Your father and I’s first priority is bringing Rin home. The Paladin intends to kill my son, I won’t allow that to pass but the other boy’s fate is incidental. If sparing him will bring my son home-”

“He’s the leader of the humans who have been offering refuge to those who’ve risen up against me!” Iblis snarled. “Beyond that, I won’t negotiate with a half-human upstart. Your son will submit to me, unconditionally. Then he can beg me for his companions’ lives.”

Rin snorted at that. “Mom might have convinced me that Bon’s best chance was for me to surrender. That’d really screw with my head because I’m not leaving Angel to die but I’m oath bound to look out for Bon and I still need practice managing Oaths. But you? Every time you open your mouth I just want to punch you that much more.”

“What’s stopping you?” Iblis asked. He shoved Yuri aside. As he broke contact between the two of them his flames shifted back to orange.

“You’ve got the barrier?” Rin asked Bon. “They’re not supposed to attack you, but I’m not putting it past Iblis to be pulling some sort of word game on me.” 

The Aria nodded and Rin unsheathed his katana and wakizashi. He stepped through the barrier to face Iblis. The flames forming the lash of Iblis’ whip reformed, as he and Rin circled each other warily he set up a complex defensive screen of crisscrossing strikes. The whip-cracks sounded like gunfire rolling across the sulfurous plane. Rin took several moments to analyze the pattern then lunged, attempting to get inside of Iblis’ attack-zone. Iblis leapt back, changing the angle of his attack in a heartbeat and Rin was forced to roll under the blow. He flipped upright, narrowly evading the follow-up.

Mephisto, Izumo, Ucchusma and Ryujin arrived. Yuri glared at Mephisto, “Are you happy?” she demanded. “Now that you’ve set your brothers at one another’s throats?”

A look of strain crossed Mephisto’s face. “Mother-chan,” he acknowledged her with a respectful bow. “I fear I must refuse to recognize Iblis as anything more than Father’s catspaw. He’s a brainless tool in Father’s continued bid to hold power in Assiah without paying the cost demanded of the rest us for the privilege and no brother of mine.”

“The Oath you tricked me into breaking still holds power, even though I’ve died?” Yuri asked as she noted the tension Mephisto couldn’t completely hide when speaking with her. 

“I’m saving it for something special,” Mephisto said with a toothy smiley.

“Your father will never allow you to take anything meaningful from me,” Yuri warned. “You know that. I’m no good to you as a trump card, the consequences would be too severe, especially for you.”

“You have no idea what my goals are or the costs I’m willing to bare to achieve them,” Mephisto replied. “I am the ruler of Entropy. It is my sacred, self-imposed, role to maintain the balance that we call life on the precipice between the frozen death of stasis and the fiery death of chaos.”

“You’re a dilettante with no true dedication to any cause but your own amusement,” Yuri reprimanded him.

“And you trust Father’s world view far too blindly,” Mephisto said. “Now isn’t there a spectacle that we should be watching?” 

Rin allowed Iblis’ whip to tangle around his raised sword arm. He ignored the burning pain from the lash and, before Iblis could yank him off balance, he charged. Iblis used the handle of his whip to block Rin’s wakizashi. 

Bound together by the length of the lash, Rin and Iblis were forced into close combat. Even if Kurikara had been free they were too close for Rin to have made effective use of his sword. The handle of Iblis’ whip was meant to double as a kosh, but with Rin’s weight on the lash it was all Iblis could do to use it to shield himself from Rin’s wakizashi. Iblis slammed his free fist into Rin’s ribs. Rin grunted with pain but he pivoted on one foot and drove his knee into Iblis’ gut in return. 

They traded blows for several moments, Rin wondered if his ribs would hold out and hoped his was doing at least as much damage to Iblis. Early in his studies with Angel, Rin had regularly resorted to taking hits to open holes in his opponent’s guard but with Iblis he was afraid that he was coming off worse for the exchange. Then it happened, Iblis drew back too far in an effort to hit Rin harder leaving himself off balance. Rin twisted to the right, yanking his sword, and consequently Iblis’ whip wide, then followed up driving his wakizashi through the hole he’d created in Iblis’ defenses. The blade struck the orange flames cloaking Iblis’ body and skidded off them without penetrating. 

Iblis laughed as he backhanded Rin, the blow snapped the whip’s lash and sent Rin flying backward. “You’re simply too weak, too young to defeat me,” the Flame King declared as strode over to where Rin had fallen and planted his foot on the center of Rin’s back. Rin yelped in pain as Iblis’ weight bore down on his spine. “I think I should appease your mother. Human though she was born, she has Father wrapped around her finger. So I won’t kill you but it will take at least a few days for you to heal from a broken back. Plenty of time.” He knelt to grab Rin’s hair and wrenched his head up. “Did you know most people burned at the stake die of suffocation? Either by strangulation before the fire is lit as a mercy or from the smoke. But they got creative during the Inquisition, a nice smokeless fire and you hung above it to roast for the crowd’s amusement.” Rin squirmed, gasping in pain as his spine was forced to arch backward at an unnatural angle, trapped between Iblis’ weight on his back and the Hell King’s inextricable pull on his head. “Of course your two humans only breath here because you will it. I wager that they’ll suffocate after all... When you can’t stand the sound of their screams any longer.”

Rin’s flames exploded throwing Iblis off him. When he stood his flames had coalesced into massive wings. He snatched up Kurikara, sapphire blue flames licked along the blade as Rin lifted the sword. 

Iblis snapped his whip, snaring Rin’s legs. Rin cut through the lash before it could tighten then closed with Iblis. At a sword’s length a whip was useless but Rin didn’t have a hold of the lash this time. Iblis flipped the handle, the base was heavily weighted and there was enough give in the haft to add a significant amount of kinetic energy it’s blows. 

Rin dodged and the weighted handle whistled past his ear, easily capable of breaking bones or fracturing a skull. There was even a risk of a well placed blow snapping Kurikara if Rin used his sword to block. Rin sidestepped a downward blow, slicing into Iblis’ side as he did so. This time a thin line of blue appeared among Iblis’ orange flames. As Rin shifted to an attack stance his face lost expression, his fiery wings spread behind him. Repeatedly he wove around Iblis’ crude attacks to score small cuts on his opponent. A network of tiny, almost insignificant blue faultlines began to form throughout Iblis’ flames. 

“You can’t hurt me!” Iblis thundered, swinging viciously at Rin. “You’re too weak! You’ve seen that! Just surrender and accept your fate!” Coolly Rin answered Iblis’ challenge with a glazing slice the sheared through Iblis’ fingers, the whip fell from his mutilated hand. “You can’t do this. I am the Flame King! You’re a half-human bastard!” he protested.

Looking every inch an avenging angel Rin lunged at Iblis. “Shut up and burn,” he commanded, driving Kurikara’s point deep into Iblis’ chest. Blue flames erupted from the sword linking with network of earlier cuts Rin had inflicted. For several moments the blue and orange flames warred across Iblis’ body then he was consumed by a bonfire of iridescent blue. For several minutes afterwards the only sound was Rin’s harsh panting as he struggled to pull his flames back in. Then he stood and yanked his sword free of the charred corpse at his feet. 

“Iblis, King of Flames is dead!” Ucchusma declared in a ringing voice. “Long live King Rin!” The cheer was quickly picked up by the others who’d aligned themselves with the Myo’o Dhari. Across the battlefield Fire Demons, both those aligned with Rin and those aligned with Iblis fell to their knees. 

Mephisto strolled up and took a seat on a boulder slightly below Rin. “As of today, the Kin of Iblis are no more. Those who owe their allegiance to the Flame Kingdom are now the Kin of Rin.” He gave Rin a mischievous smile. “You’d best say something so they know what to expect from their new ruler.”

For a long time Rin stood there, staring out at the thousands of demons kneeling before him. “Kin of Rin, that means you’re my family,” he said finally. “To me family means people who you look out for. So I’m swearing that I’ll look out for you against people who’d attack you. I’ll try to my best ability to sort out fights among you, because being family doesn’t mean we’ll always agree with each other. I’m not Iblis, I won’t tell you that you’ve gotta like who I like and hate who I hate. I will remind you that I grew up in Assiah and I’m not going to standby while people attack my home, not even if they’re my family. You don’t have to like humans or help them, but either try to get along with ‘em or leave ‘em alone. Everybody got that?”


	15. Reasons Why

Izumo held back for long minutes while the Flame Kingdom made their obeisance to their new king but the moment the mood seemed to break she ran up and threw her arms around Rin. “Don’t worry me like that!” she exclaimed. 

Rin leaned down to rest his cheek against Izumo’s as he ran his hand through her hair pressing her into him, his fingers caressing the base of one of Izumo’s fox ears. “When they told me they were fighting my friends, I knew you found a way to come after me,” he said, his voice thick with relief at seeing Izumo unharmed. 

At the sight of the two of them embracing a small smile softened Yuri’s face. But then she looked around at Rin’s allies, a number of whom were now gathered around the Myo’o Dhari heir and the Paladin, at both armies of the Flame Kingdom kneeling to Rin, at Mephisto’s self-satisfied smirk. “Rin,” Yuri called. “Even if I tried, I couldn’t stop them from returning your two companions to Assiah but you don’t have to go with them.” She nodded toward Izumo, “She would be welcome to stay as well.”

“Why would Izumo or I would want to abandon Assiah?” Rin asked. A small nod from Izumo assured him that he had her support. “As for Bon and Angel, I told you: They’re my friends. Of course I’m going home with them.” 

“The Paladin admits that he means to kill you, like he killed me!” Yuri exclaimed, her voice rising in panic. “Don’t go with him, please! I’m begging you.”

“Um Mom,” Rin began with an uncertain sigh. “I- I get you’re worried but you don’t know Angel.”

“I was in his mind,” Yuri insisted. “He means to kill you.”

Rin’s expression hardened, “You invaded my mind too and I don’t count that as you knowing anything about me.”

A wild look filled Yuri’s eyes. Her form shifted back to a ball of blue flames as she dove at Angel. 

_“Mother-chan stop,” Mephisto said calmly. Yuri looked around and saw the rest of the world as a blur speeding past them. “You are only disappointing your son with this behavior. Admit you played your hand badly and move on.”_

_“The paladin-”_

_“You are confused,” Mephisto asserted. “Do you even know if it’s Arthur Angel or his predecessor whom you fear?”_

_Yuri struggled to move faster, to break free of Mephisto’s manipulation of her personal time._

_“Yuri Egin,” Mephisto said forcefully, “You were burned alive. With Satan’s aid you escaped but your wounds were too grievous. You loved Satan and knew he couldn’t bare to be parted from you so you made a pact with him, placed your soul in his keeping so that death wouldn’t separate you. But what you have is only a pale imitation of life which is ruled by the circumstances of your death: You were hurting terribly, afraid for your unborn children and undoubtedly feeling that every hand was turned against you.”_

_“That moment was not the whole of your life. Remember that. After all I’m asking no more of you than your lover does. Remember, remember every last thing you can of who you were. Father begs you to remember your every incarnation, I’m only asking you to remember your last life and remember if this is who you really are or simple who you were as you died, afraid and suffering.”_

While Rin and Iblis fought Angel had recovered consciousness but not his feet. His skin was translucently pale and his breathing ragged, he was clearly in no condition to defend himself. Rin, Izumo and Bon all moved to intercept the ball of blue flames before it could reach him. To their surprise the ball of blue flames froze several feet short of the injured paladin. Cautiously Rin approached the ball, up close he could see that even the flickering of the flames had been stilled. 

“Well! I recommend that everyone makes themselves scarce,” Mephisto announced brightly. “It won’t be long before Satan notices his beloved’s predicament and comes to her rescue. Knowing him, whoever is present will get the blame.” 

The results of Mephisto’s declaration were dramatic. In mere seconds both armies had dispersed. Rin’s allies vanished back to Assiah or to the domains of Earth or Sea as each preferred. The Flame Demons who had supported Iblis were just as quick to scatter to the distant corners of their domain while those aligned with Myo’o Dhari hesitated only long enough to look to Rin. “Yeah go,” Rin told them. “Let Ucchusma or I know if you guys have any more trouble with the rest of the Kingdom okay?”

“We should be away from here as well,” Mephisto said.

“Is she okay? What happened to her?” Rin asked with a worried glance at Yuri’s frozen form.

“I adjusted her relationship with time,” Mephisto replied. “It won’t hurt her a bit and would wear off on its own in a day, not that I expect Father to allow my spell to stand that long. He’ll be quite irritated with me but he’s already more than aware that I have been the one keeping you from him since your arrival at the Academy.” The Hell King snapped his fingers and a letter appeared which he tucked between two flames near the top of the ball that was Yuri.

“What’s that?” Bon demanded suspiciously. 

“Oh nothing much,” Mephisto replied dismissively. “A note to Father: Lucifer’s kingdom is in turmoil, I haven’t seen Aniki in sometime and am concerned for him. Iblis’ hatred of humans had gotten completely out of control: He knocked Mother-chan to the ground right in front of Rin before they fought. Speaking of that, isn’t the little brother he and Mother-chan gave me remarkable? That Rin was able to defeat Iblis at a mere 18 years of age where Iblis was old enough to have seen the destruction of two Assiahs is an amazing feat and truly shows how much more suitable Rin is to rule the Flame Kingdom. Mother-chan really shouldn’t worry so much about him, Rin is quite capable of handling himself in Assiah. Keeping him home in Gehenna would be ridiculously over-protective in light of his accomplishments. Also Amaimon and Egyn have fallen in love with the same girl and I’m finding great amusement in watching the two of them fight for her favor. She might be a suitable soulmate for Amaimon, but I can’t say for certain yet. Just a bit of family gossip. I’ve found that, from time to time, pre-emptively reaching out to one’s parents deters them from making potentially inconvenient efforts to check in on you. Now we really should be going, Father is extremely over-protective of Mother-chan and will be here soon.”

Bon shook his head disparagingly but didn’t say anything else. Mephisto used the tip of his patched umbrella to sketch out a pentagram in the air then a portal spiraled open at the heart of the pentagram. Rin offered Angel a hand up but the Paladin ignored him and staggered to his feet on his own. Rin rolled his eyes and followed Angel into the portal holding hands with Izumo. Mike and Uke trotted through after them. Mephisto waved Bon through then allowed it to close behind them. 

They found themselves back in the cavern at the root of the World Tree. The floor had somehow repaired itself after they’d been swept into Gehenna. Members of the Angelic Brigade jogged back and forth with bemused expressions carrying books, movies, cigarettes and assorted foods to the Kallikantzaros who were lounging about. One of the larger insect demons was smoking a hookah while waving a sheet of paper at a grim and exhausted looking Lightning. “See, it’s all there in the contract!” The Kallikantzaros pointed a segmented leg at the World Tree, “We keep that weed under control and we get twelve days vacation in Assiah every year. It’s all right there in papyrus and blood!”

“It says you get from December twenty-fifth to January 6th off,” Lightning stated after making an obligatory study of the contract being shoved in his face.

“Yeah well those bat-winged flame-brains wouldn’t let us go,” the Kallikantzaros complained. “No work left to do but could they see that? No, they just keep cracking the whip. Don’t know a thing about gardening. We’ve been keeping the grand old weed in proper shape for thirty thousand years but in they come claiming they know better than us when we’re done for the year. Since when have we ever missed the deadline? We always got our work done by the solstice, take couple days to clean up the mess, then it’s vacation time! I was planning on hitting Maui this year.”

“Sorry about your plans,” Lightning said flatly. “But it’s January 10th, your contract says you get the Twelve Days of Christmas off....” He trailed off as Angel stumbled out of the portal. A brilliant smile lit up his face. “As I was saying we’re terribly sorry about those nasty Ifrits messing up your plans but it’s no fault of ours that they did. We got rid of them as soon as we could. But anyways, is there anything I can get you? Since you missed your chance to stock up this year.”

“Spam,” the Kallikantzaros declared firmly. “Can’t get enough of that stuff, comes in a can ya see.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Lightning declared as he started toward Angel. “Just as soon as I check on our Ifrit exterminators, ‘kay?” 

“But that doesn’t make up for missing Maui!” the Kalikantzaros shouted after Lightning. The Adept waved him off negligently. 

“I know just how you feel,” Mephisto declared. “Gehenna is so terribly boring. And Iblis interfered with your promised vacation, after you’d done such a good job pruning the tree back. I want you to know we take your complaints very seriously. Rin-kun over there took them up with Iblis himself and next year I promise there will be no problems.” Mephisto leaned close to the Kallikantzaros and threw an arm around it’s shoulders. “The former King of Flames is dead at Rin-kun’s hands. Naturally, he has assumed the throne… So next year there shouldn’t be any problems enjoying your vacation… Although you might want to tone it down a bit. Rin-kun grew up in Assiah and no one likes tourists who leave their manners at home, if you know what I mean.”

“You reckless idiot, what part of ‘scout’ don’t you get?” Lightning said fondly as he pushed Angel to sit down. 

“It would have been a good idea if Iblis had actually been trying to destroy the world,” Angel objected. “Besides it was Okumura’s plan anyway.”

“Blaming your student,” Lightning tsked. He produced an IV bag of blood from beneath his serape and hung it off a convenient protrusion from the World Tree. With a well practiced movement he ripped Angel’s sleeve off and quickly found a vein. Then he set about checking over Angel’s assorted injuries and redoing all of his bandages. 

Rin wandered over. He winched at the mix of scars and fresh wounds that marred Angel’s bare arm. “Is he going to be alright?”

Lightning smiled reassuringly. “Yeah, I always carry his vintage. He’ll be all tanked up by morning. Then give him a couple of weeks to finish sealing all the leaks and he’ll be right as rain.” 

“Please, just finish with the bandages,” Angel said avoiding Lightning’s eyes. “Okumura and I have business.”

“The hell you do,” Bon immediately answered him. Meanwhile every trace of animation had left Lightning’s face. He continued tending Angel’s injuries but his movements were abrupt and harsh. 

“That woman wasn’t lying?” Izumo asked Rin. 

Rin gave her hand a squeeze. “It’s okay.”

“No it’s not,” Bon snapped.

When Lightning finished tying off bandages he clamped the IV line and yanked it out of Angel’s arm then he turned pointedly away from the others.

Rin turned to Mephisto. “Don’t let anyone follow us, please?” he asked. 

“As you wish,” Mephisto replied.

As Rin and Angel walked away Bon turned to Mephisto. “You don’t understand! Rin’s mother told us-”

“The Grigori has been squandering if not outright abusing Sir Angel’s talents, and limitations, for years,” Mephisto interrupted. “You know that very well don’t you Lewin Light, given all you’ve done to keep them from destroying him. Rin is well positioned to break him free of their grasp and ready to try, I think it is worth the effort.”

“Did you bother to consider the cost if Rin fails?” Lightning accused. “Because I’ve been trying and failing for better than a decade.”

* * *

Angel and Rin walked in silence until they found a small clearing well away from the others. “Your mother was right,” Angel said stepping away from Rin and drawing his sword. “Today is the day. The Grigori has ordered your execution.”

“I know.” Very slowly Rin raised his hand to the buckle on his weapons harness.

“Don’t,” Angel protested.

Rin unbuckled the harness and let his swords fall. He started walking toward Angel.

“I told you, once the order was given, one of us has to die,” Angel took a step back.

“I’ve never beaten you in a spar,” Rin pointed out. “You told me it would help you sleep better afterwards if I tried to fight you but we both know who will win.”

“I’ve never fought you with your heart unsealed,” Angel argued. “I’m anemic, if I try to cut my hair any shorter I’m liable to scalp myself. Pick up your swords.”

“If we fight, you’ll fight to win. Your honor demands it,” Rin said. “The only thing you have left to sacrifice is your life, even if I could beat Caliburn at that level… I don’t want to. If I fight you today we’ll both die.”

“So you do have something of a demon in you after all,” Angel replied with a shade of his typical arrogance, he took another step back. “You’re trying to manipulate me. It won’t work, I swear to you. Pick up your swords.”

“I’m not trying to fool you, you’re trying to fool yourself!” Rin exclaimed. “Do you really believe I’m a threat to Assiah?”

“I have my orders!”

“Screw them. Do you believe Assiah will be better off if we both die here?”

Angel let Caliburn’s point sag until the blade rested in the dirt. He stood head bowed, shoulders hunched. With his hair raggedly cropped back above the level of his jaw and his gleaming white clothes dingy, blood-splattered and torn, Angel looked oddly vulnerable. His thoughts turned back to the night he’d been given his orders.

_“Sir Angel, hold a moment,” Baltazar called as the Paladin rose to leave after receiving the Underworld keys from Mephisto._

_“Time is of the essence, is it not?” Angel asked with a frown._

_“I won’t delay you long,” Baltazar said. He gestured for Mephisto to go then waited for the door to swing shut. “The son of Satan is not to return from this mission.”_

_“But- I convinced you to forgo your initial conditions. And even if you hadn’t Okumura-kun passed the Exam this year.”_

_Baltazar waved off his objection. “Beyond evaluating the Hell-spawn’s reactions the Exam was meaningless. He could have fail it hundred times for all I care, just so long as his usefulness continued to exceed the threat he represents. But the moment that ceased to be true his execution was guaranteed. It wouldn’t have mattered if he were a brilliant as his twin or as dumb as a rock.”_

_“You gave your word,” Angel protested helplessly._

_“Demons aren’t the only ones capable of being clever with the oaths they give,” Baltazr replied carelessly. “We trusted that Mephisto Pheles would be able to arrange outs for us so long as we didn’t wish to carry through with our threat. And we never promised NOT to execute him for offenses unrelated to the Exam.”_

_“What offense?” Angel demanded. “Okumura is an excellent subordinate and student. His oath to Suguro is beyond reproach. For God’s sake, he freely gave an oath we wouldn’t dare ASK of any other demon!”_

_“Quite,” Baltazar said. “If we asked Pheles for a fraction of what that boy swore to the Myodha, he’d laugh himself sick… After eviscerating whomever had presumed to ask.”_

_“Then why?”_

_“Politics,” Baltazar replied. “The Myodha’s Ucchusma is the only source of Blessed Ashes left. With the Satan’s flames at their command as well they have every ability to break with the True Cross and then hold us hostage for our supply of Blessed Ashes. Ten years ago the Myohda finally agreed to come under our umbrella when they could no longer deny that the Blue Night had left them too weak to stand alone. That cannot be allowed to change! That stubborn old man wouldn’t acknowledge anyone as his better and the grandson looks to be cut from the same cloth. If they gain enough strength for Suguro to convince his advisors to leave we can’t expect another Blue Night to force them back into the fold.”_

_“This order, it has nothing at all to do with Rin.” Angel shook his head in denial. “His character doesn’t matter to you in the slightest.”_

_“All I care about is is ensuring the True Cross’ continued ability to protect Assiah from demonic invasion,” Baltazar replied. “Okumura’s human blood and human upbringing may, as you have observed, bind him personally to Assiah but his mere existence has the potential to cost the True Cross hard won gains in creating a united front against Gehenna.”_

_“Naturally your orders regarding Okumura are to remain secret, speak of them to no one,” Baltazar continued. “To avoid damaging our relations with the Myohda it would be preferable if the Myodha’s future High Priest returned unharmed and with no clue that Okumura was anything other than a casualty of the war against Gehenna.”_

_“I may be incapable of carrying out your wishes,” Angel said stiffly. “I am not talented at disassembling.”_

_“If Suguro dies or suspects that Okumura’s death was intentional I will disavow all knowledge of your orders,” Baltazar said coldly. “For the sake of the Order of True Cross, you’ll be punished to pacify the Myodhan. Do your best but it probably won’t be anything beyond demotion if you fail. Tamers have a bad habit of making pets of their familiars but, at the end of the day, if one dies it’s just a dead demon.”_

Angel gave Rin a despairing look, “If I can’t trust my superior’s orders, what can I trust?”

“Trust yourself,” Rin stated. He stopped just within a sword’s length, Caliburn’s length, from Angel. “You gave me a long time to think about today. If we fight you’ll die and I’ll probably die. That’s not what I want. For me, winning is both of us walk away alive. I’m not trying to manipulate you. Not fighting is the only chance I’ve got to make that happen.”

“Angel?” Caliburn ask uncertainly when the Paladin made no move. 

“Your orders were to kill me if I was a threat,” Rin reminded Angel. “I’m not going to betray Assiah or humanity. Satan may be my father but he killed my dad. And honestly? I don’t know what to make of my mom. Ever since learning who my Father was I’d hoped she was some sort of innocent dupe but, well, I guess not. I don’t know why the Grigori suddenly decided I’m a threat but don’t ask me to do their job and convince you that they’re right. If you think I’m a threat, go ahead and kill me.”

Angel’s elbow pressed in against the fresh burn scar on his side, a physical reminder of all the ways Rin had kept him alive for the past few days, one that he would wear for the rest of his life. He sighed and put away his sword. “It would have been simpler if you hadn’t stopped me from sacrificing my life to defeat Iblis.” 

Rin’s knees collapsed. “Yeah, I know.” 

After few moments Angel offered his hand and pulled Rin back to his feet only to lose his balance and end up leaning heavily on Rin as the younger knight steered them back toward the others.


	16. Epilogue

Rin sat on the peak of the Admin building’s roof staring out into the night. 

“You usually sulk on the roof of your own dorm,” Mephisto said as he joined Rin. “So I assume you wish to talk?”

“Not really,” Rin replied. Then he sighed. “I’d just, well ever since I found out who my father was, I’d hoped my mom was a good person. Well, really, given who he is I should have known better, but I still thought maybe she was being used, that maybe she was just dumb... naive, I guess. Then I meet her and… She hates Dad.”

Mephisto sat down beside Rin. “I’d like to think if our father ever got his wish and was able to restore all her memories he’d be in for an unpleasant surprise,” he said. 

“He changed her when she died?” Rin asked hopefully. “She wasn’t really like that before… Is she a demon now?”

“If you wish to blame it on that,” Mephisto replied with a careless wave of his hand. “A demon can hold on to a soul rather than destroy it and a person may lose their soul to a particular demon on purpose... because the two of them can’t bear to be parted. I don’t recommend it. Do you remember what we discussed at your banquet? When a human soul is removed from the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation for any reason, it is my observation that becomes frozen in that moment. In Yuri’s case I would venture a guess that she gave Father her soul at some point between her escape on the Blue Night and her death from the injuries she suffered that night.” Mephisto paused for a moment. “Not exactly conducive to forgiveness for the man who handed her over to those who burned her at the stake.”

Rin flinched at the reminder.

“Shiro was doing what he believed was right,” Mephisto continue. “I had told him there was a clean means of dealing with the child she carried. Of course, I meant sealing your heart in Kurikara so you could be raised among humans, raised to cherish Assiah. At the time Shiro might have thought I meant to save Yuri, but to be frank, she wasn’t my primary concern once you were conceived. However, Yuri’s father wasn’t willing to wait for you to be born before he dealt with his political embarrassment of a daughter.” Mephisto didn’t mention that Egin’s actions had played neatly into his plans to hide Rin’s birth from the Grigori until he was older.

Rin chewed on his lower lip for a few moments, thinking through what Mephisto had said. “That’s not what you were thinking,” he said. “You were talking about something else when you said Mom wouldn’t be on Satan’s side if she remembered everything.”

Mephisto smiled. “Very good, you’re learning.” As reward for Rin spotting the lesser of his deceptions Mephisto continued. “In a sense we share a mother as well as a father, Yuri Egin is a reincarnation of my mother. I didn’t know her in the life where she gave birth to me but from the stories I was told you would have liked her very much.”

Rin looked up at him hopefully.

“However, while Yuri Egin is my mother’s reincarnation she is also not the same woman who gave birth to me. There is a core to humans that remains the same in every incarnation but they are also a product of their environment. The core of Yuri Egin has not changed since time began, but in this life she was raised to believe that everything revolved around a very black and white war between humans and demons. Then she saw exactly what her father had justified in the name of that war. Another incarnation might have reacted differently, but Yuri Egin’s world was black and white, if humans weren’t good then demons must be. If her father, who hated demons with all his soul was evil incarnate, then perhaps the one he considered his arch nemesis was good. That we are all a mix of good and evil was more than she could comprehend.”

“Oh,” Rin said dully. “Um, should we be freeing her soul or something?”

“In time she’ll recognize the half-life she currently has for what it is,” Mephisto said with a wave of his hand. “Then she’ll ask Father to let her go. He’s never been able to deny her.”

Rin looked disbelieving.

“Our father’s not exactly what his press makes him out to be,” Mephisto shrugged. “Satan may be the most ancient and powerful being you’ll ever encounter.”

Rin wrinkled his nose at that.

“The last time the Eldest spoke directly to me, it was the age of Atlantis and I was at the height of my power. Much, much stronger than I am now,” Mephisto said. “It hardly counted as a scolding but his voice drove me to my knees and it was only because that Assiah was already destroyed that the Eldest could risk direct contact. Memory of Atlantis has been all but lost in the mists of time and my various sojourns in the Void have left me much weaker than I was then, I wouldn’t survive another conversation and you have millenniums to go before you will be able to match my current level of power. 

“There is a price for power,” Mephisto resumed his initial thought. “That is what Satan refuses to understand or accept. And so in spite of his great age and all the power he possesses he is still a toddler beating his fists and feet on the floor, screaming because he can’t have his way. Power or Assiah. His beloved at his side for all eternity or her goal of saving all of humanity. Choices must be made.”

Rin perked up, “My mom wanted to save everybody? Really?” he asked.

“That was how the stories I was told as a child went,” Mephisto said, “and she succeeded. Of course, as I said before, there nothing that comes without cost. Mother became quite infamous for introducing death to Assiah as a consequence of her desire to save the whole human race.” 

Mephisto reached out and ruffled Rin’s hair, “There are always consequences, to someone and we must be mindful of them. But we can’t be paralyzed by them, because there are consequences for inaction as well. You’ll soon see the consequences of Arthur Angel’s choice not kill you...”

* * *

“You summoned me?” Angel said as he stepped into Baltazar’s private office.

“You disobeyed my orders,” Baltazar growled.

“You are referring to the orders which I am under orders not to discuss with anyone because it would be incredibly harmful to our relationship with the Myo’o Dhari if it came out that such a thing was ordered?” Angel inquired. 

Baltazar sputtered. 

“Regardless, you will be pleased to learn that your concerns about our supply of Blessed Ashes has been resolved,” Angel continued. “Okumura Rin is the current King of Flames. Unlike his predecessor Iblis, Rin is quite friendly toward Assiah and has ordered his new subjects to do their best to ‘get along’ with us. While his command may be somewhat naive, I think you will see a considerable upswing in Tamers with Flame affinity now that their potential familiars won’t be risking their lives to respond to their call.”

“How dare you!” Baltazar spat. “How dare you presume to know better than I, what is good for the True Cross.”

“Yes,” Angel grimaced. “To date my only significant rebellion against authority resulted in my being kidnapped, raped and nearly murdered. It did leave me quite hesitant to repeat the experiment, however I am not a hormonal teenager any longer. Admittedly, age has not made me any more clever or particularly good at divining the intents and trustworthiness of those around me. Rather than risk depending on my own judgement I trust the wisdom of consensus and bow to those who have been placed above me in our hierarchy. However, just because I’m slow to reach a proper conclusion about those around me does not mean I am completely incapable of forming an opinion for myself.” The Paladin straightened, “Give me secret orders to murder Okumura Rin again and I will be quite public in my refusal to carry them out.”

Three months later Angel was quietly demoted for list of reasons no one present believed. 

“I find myself in need of a second,” Mephisto informed Angel as he left Grigori’s chamber. “And you seem to be in need of a new position. It doesn’t have the same prestige as Paladin but… I can promise you that we will face Satan within the decade. Rin will do battle against his father within the decade. If you truly wish to force Caliburn to break his Oath to your family you’ll have no better chance.”

* * *

“I think it’d be good for you,” Lightning advised with a small grin. “A direct superior whom you don’t trust an ich and expects no less from you.”

“I hate everything he represents,” Angel objected.

Lightning shrugged. “Sir Pheles doesn’t want to be your friend. He wants to use you in a plot to overthrow Satan and probably place Rin on his throne as a puppet-king. Do you have a problem with that?”

“Okumura isn’t easily swayed from his notions of right and wrong,” Angel commented.

Lightning nodded. “Since you’ve been based in Tokyo for the last two years a third of the Brigade is already stationed in Japan. We’ll want to be a quiet about transferring the rest, but I think it’s safe to say we can count on Sir Pheles’ help.”

“You’re acting like I’ve already said yes,” Angel pointed out.

“It’s this or hang around Rome waiting for Baltazar to find a mission you won’t survive,” Lighting replied frankly. “All it took was agreement between the Grigori to remove you as Paladin, but you’ll remain the Knight-Adept until you die, step down or they find a champion who can defeat you. I think Baltazar has a notion of the odds against finding a knight you can’t curb stomp.”

“Now as for the rest us Arch Knights: I go where you go, everyone knows that. Tereza will have a blast resigning her post in outrage, someone needs to do it might as well be her. Annie and Zi we’ll leave in place, they can be our ears in Rome.”

“Pheles offered a gate between here and my family home,” Angel interrupted.

“I have a better idea,” Lightning volunteered. “Move Sally and Harold here, leave the old bat in the crumbling rock pile.”

Angel frowned.

“If it were Kyoto that would probably be too much for Sally but she’ll be fine in Tokyo,” Lightning continued. “Harold should know more about this half of his heritage and it’s past time that he lived in the same country as his father.”

“You know why I stay away from him,” Angel replied angrily.

“You want that chance Sir Pheles offered to go up against Satan don’t you?” Lightning asked. “If he sticks to his timeline Harold should be around twenty before you die. You didn’t think you’d live to see him born. You were certain that you’d die before he turned ten. Now you might very well be around to see him graduate high school. Stop wasting time Arthur, get to know your son.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the points where I’ve diverged from cannon is that while it’s open secret that Mephisto Pheles is a demon, in my stories the True Cross isn’t aware that Mephisto is also Samael.


End file.
